Completing the circle

Hatch Road seems like such a funny name. I so resonate with words and meanings.... a friend has moved to Joy Road! From the Mains of Sluie (how.... earthy) to Ponderosa Road, imagination flirts. And then I thought, well.... Hatch Road. What's that about?

At first there's the obvious imagery of birth - little chicks hatching. (As well as ducks, snakes, penguins or even a platypus). I see also the taking in, as in the quip, "Down the hatch!" It's also an opening... oftentimes narrow.... leading elsewhere. I love to play with words and their meanings.

I take them all in and celebrate what my dear friend Tony calls completing the circle. He wrote, "Welcome to your new home. May it be a place of healing and happiness. It's been a long journey of trust and sometimes very scary. Your new little home looks lovely."

My heart swells with this benediction from such a beloved friend.

The bustle of moving a bare minimum albeit several carloads of essentials into my new abode leaves me knackered today. I've been pushing my own envelope just enough to know that it's time to take a wee breather. I can look just outside my living room window to a home for owls.... a white-faced barn owl named Mo and a screech owl named Izzy, I am told, have been the part-time residents there (separately, mind you). If you click on the photo, it will enlarge and you may be able to spot the owl box. Rather than set out poison for the rodents you will find in a rural environment, my landlords built this lovely owl box... so that they may eat without taking a poisoned critter back to the nest and killing them all. I'm waiting for twilight to see.....

I'm not racing around like a total madwoman to settle in. I am still overloaded with long delayed business admin. I'm creating a new home I pray to be in for a very long time. And it's Advent..... a time of sacred reflection in anticipation of the birth of Christ. And yes, the secular shrieks of buy-buy-buy!, do-do-DO! assault my psyche along with the tinny carols playing in the stores. One day at a time I get to show up for choices, for peace and for the thrill of an abode I love rather than simply endured such as the shack in Berkeley.

When I crossed the border on November 12th, California re-greeted me over and over. Tears sprung in my eyes as I felt without apology, "I am from here and I BELONG here!" That is one of my core issues - belonging... fitting in... being welcomed. And traveling across this beautiful country yet again, I was welcomed and cared for in most instances, by those seen and Unseen... and by the One known when I say "Yes.....!" first thing in the morning and last thing at night.

There's no place like home!

.... and after a life tendency to be a moving target and with the wild ride of this past year in particular as a backdrop, I'm happy to say I have found a place to land in California.... up in "unincorporated Marin County" with a street address of Novato but nestled against the hills adjoining Indian Valley.

Just in time for the holidays! (For those who aren't sure, I'm being tongue-in-cheek about my impeccable timing).

I have many nuances and stories to share since arriving back in California on November 12th. I won't do that here since I'm graced to have been dancing the dance between rewelcoming the choice aspects of my former life, house-hunting from San Rafael to Bodega Bay to Inverness (yes, there's an Inverness, CA) and now.... moving in! I have few belongings now and that's okay. When I left in April, I left. I gave away most. So now I will move with open heart and hands... and welcome this new space to call my own for healing, for life, and (when I have enough chairs and plates), for the welcoming of beloved friends.

Here are a few photos I "borrowed" from the ad (click HERE) as well as some of my own. You can make the photos larger by moving the circle in the bottom right-hand corner of the web page. The resolution on the first couple of shots doesn't enlarge well, but the rest are good.

Tomorrow (Tuesday, November 24th, 2 days before Thanksgiving) I sign the papers and give a Cashiers Check to the property owners. Nanette and Bill are dear hearts, earthy, kindly. They made tea for us when I came by yesterday with more paperwork on my behalf. My choir director and his family live close by, a possibility morsel with which I attempted to torture him after Church yesterday. The old house is surrounded by an acre of exquisite landscaping and gardening; there are pomegranates right next to me, egging me on to be picked (yes, in November - it's California). Tony in Scotland taught me how to plant potatoes in containers. The lessons continue! As my friend Nickie in Sedona wrote, this ".... looks like the perfect place to do some serious inner work, writing, juicing and healing!"

And I say AMEN!

I have landed in California

This is very short as I drove in on a brisk Sierra Nevada breeze into Thursday night choir practice and have been bustling ever since. I cannot readily write in here now as my hotshot Verizon Mifi device (a portable "hotspot") is, for all of its supposed glamor, in a dead spot where I am staying for the time being. Remember dial-up? This is WORSE. Until I arrange for faster broadband, just know I'm here and safe and in fact happy to be here.

This photo is from a non-water landing on the beach in Barra, Scotland sometime around 1995.....

No links today since they take forever in my broadband hell! I'll let y'all Google whatever isn't clear. Amazing world we live in, doncha think?

dripping in God's mercy and generosity

It's been a wee while since I've written. Between the long journey from Branson, Missouri to Sedona, Arizona and what being here has encompassed, quietness has trumped waving my arms and squawking, "Watch me!" (Remember being three or four and begging your parents to watch you DO something?). Sometimes my writing in here has that old memory and desire. Now that I think of it, I wonder how much of it motivates me? And if so, may I just let that be?

This is a good time to be here in northern Arizona. My dear friends N&D are off in the Pacific Northwest in their RV, visiting family and soon returning. Their generosity and trust in welcoming me into their home in their absence fills my heart with smiles. I hope that they can feel my thank you's when they return home later this week.

After gaining permission from the new friends I've made while on my cross-country adventure, here are two photo galleries!

The Rivendell Community in Dunnegan, MO

Hallelujah Acres Lifestyle Center in Golden, MO

(Yes, please click on the links).

With less surprise than I might otherwise have anticipated, I am continuing to enjoy a mostly raw vegan diet. I am more surprised to be making up some of the recipes for myself than feeling drawn to a nice ole hunk o' fish or chicken! Will I do this forever or perfectly? As we say in 12-Step land while reading How It Works, "we think not." (Note: Sobriety and recovery are intended to be, one day at a time, a complete commitment with no wiggle room. Half measures availed us nothing. My nutritional healing adventures however I continue to explore and tweak). I am however committed to pursuing addressing the underlying toxicities that surely led to my outbreak of AML over a year ago. While a number of the herbs I am taking and as well the unfathomable Grace of God see me today in grateful remission, I need to go deeper and see what done broke and how I might fix it. I've begun reading The China Study. I remain an online three-quarters time, unpaid (as yet, haha) cancer researcher. Yesterday I swooned with a lymphatic drainage massage followed by a mildly odd yet seriously sweaty oxygen sauna. Get thee clean! My dear friend Pushpa initiated this bout of clear-out with one of her gifted Reflexology sessions the evening before. This morning I'm eager for another jog amidst the red rocks and high altitude (over 4000' MSL) air.

I had a blood draw (CBCs) when I first arrived. There's an online company where one can have a valid medical requisition without making a several hundred dollar doctor's appointment. Getting a blood draw still brings up tremendous fear, through which I pray and breathe. And the results? BETTER! My weakest lab results of the past several months was just before I left Roswell, GA - clearly the living situation stresses, both addressed and buried, were having a palpable effect on me. This past week's showed UPWARD movement in the difficult-to-address white blood counts and almost low-normal red counts! Platelets are 90! (Hey. Ninety is good for me, in fact it's GREAT and will get better!). For you record-keepers, my WBC is 1.7 and my ANC doubled to .6! Yep, I'm shooting for a thousand and up now... and not just to get out of the hospital. Thanks be to God!

My title's reference to dripping was from the Holy Eucharist service on Sunday at St. Andrew's here in Sedona. After partaking of the Blessed Sacrament, we were invited to come up to the altar rail again for healing prayers. No brainer for me. A small number of us gathered and kneeled. When the priest came to anoint my forehead with oil, it literally dripped down onto my nose. I giggled. She almost did, as well. I loved it. I had asked for continued remission and in fact for a total healing, and was then dripping in God's mercy and love.

For this I give exultant thanks.

Wednesday morning I leave here for the 2-day drive to the North Bay. I ask your prayers for safe travels and a graceful arrival.