simpleandgrounded

Fast forward four months. We’ve taken another step, albeit a circuitous one, toward grounding ourselves in North Carolina. We traded homes with a dear friend in Jacksonville. When our lease came up for renewal, she moved into our second floor river front apartment in the 180-year old house; we took up temporary residence in her historic-district bungalow. Another round of down-sizing, culling more books, more clothes, more kitchen goods. We have no lease, and no commitment beyond the proper “staging” of her bungalow until it sells. Now what?

This much I know. Our intentions have taken on a momentum of their own. We got the transition started during a period of very uncomfortable chaos nearly three years ago. Remember the Great Recession? Like so many others, we found ourselves unexpectedly on shaky financial ground. My husband was between jobs for several months, we had too much house debt, and we had lost our joy. The shakedown took some time, but here we are on the other side of that particular crisis. Nearly out of debt and looking retirement in the face. Our green-built timberframe home in Black Mountain, North Carolina, is finished and furnished. We “commute” back and forth to Jacksonville for work commitments and to spend time with friends and extended family there. But more and more, our hearts are in the mountains of western North Carolina.

My Angel Card word for 2013 is Clarity. I trust that every small insight, every ‘aha’ moment, every acknowledged message from the universe, is contributing to a larger sense of clarity in answer to the “Now what?” question. Bit by bit, inch by inch, in every ordinary and extraordinary present moment, we live a little deeper into that question.