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.