It is 10:30 in the morning, and except for the cats who are stuck in the bathroom until the movers work their magic and deliver all our furniture and heavy boxes, I am alone in our new home. Bear Path Cottage. My dream come true. We will spend our first night here tonight, but our first sleep here will take place sometime this afternoon when we've made the bed and Rhodes and I and the cats settle in for an afternoon nap. I've been looking forward to that nap for days.
When we took possession of the house two months ago, a nap wasn't at the top of my list for "first thing" in the Cottage, but this has been a long, happy, stressful, joy-filled, exhausting, thrilling, two months. An afternoon nap in the soft green-tinted natural light that fills our beautiful bedroom is absolutely the most perfect celebration I can think of.
The process of restoring this house and filling it with good vibes, love, and peaceful energy has at times been a challenge, and a solid, tangible, touchable metaphor for the painful healing journey I am on. I have learned that the Cottage will not give up the scars it carries from its 37 years of existence, and I have learned that it is okay for those scars to show. She earned her scars just as I have earned mine, and although they don't always reveal their backstory, they are a testament to strength.
If there were a banner across our front porch it might read "This Home was Made with Love." I am (and Rhodes is too) deeply grateful to the family and friends who helped us fill these rooms with love, laughter, music, and memories through the days of transformation. It might be difficult for some folks to understand that moving into this dream and knowing that Beth will never physically be here with us is deeply painful. The built-in memories and hand-crafted touches of love that we are starting with help to ease that pain.
Last night we heard a bullfrog singing his night song somewhere down the road, and when we got back from a riduculously late dinner our yard was filled with fireflies. The gardens are growing, and yesterday we found fresh bear scat in the part of the yard we call the North 40. Our notch-eared neighbor rabbit makes an almost daily appearance in the front yard, and the birds fill the air with song and raucous calls. We are surrounded by nature. We are surrounded by magic. We are doing our best to respond with love.
Six years and three days on the Mountain, and now that we are leaving, we are finally home. Welcome to Bear Path Cottage.
Peace out, peeps.
~sheri
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