We are back from an amazing weekend of camping out at our new old house. From Saturday noon till Tuesday noon we tasted our new life and found it good. 

Ok, not perfect--hey! There are always glitches and annoying flaws which one only discovers after one actually lives inside a house. You know, things even weathered old inspectors miss (and the sellers certainly ain't gonna mention). But we'll fix all that stuff over the years (and we'll learn to deal with the mosquitoes, ones which our neighbors--who we met--said were worse this year than they'd seen before. Alas!)

I played in the huge (weed-infested) garden, twice, in the rain.  I poked around in the compost pile after Tom and I moved the huge frame over so I could begin again. I started raking out the chicken coop and mowed miles of lawn (it seemed) while my body thanked me for the exercise, reminding me how it feels to move fast, fluidly.

And I breathed-in gallons of good, clean countryside air, feeling like I'd held my breath for 15 years in these gas-fumed, cigarette-wafting suburbs.

Inside the house I washed shelves, snipped and laid wallpaper over them and put away groceries, pans and dishes. And washed windows (dreadful ancient ones we'll replace). Naomi and Carl came over Sunday afternoon for the grand tour, both inside and out on the land, and we sat on wicker furniture in our bay-windowed dining room and had such a pleasant visit in this new old place.

And our pine floors! They were dreadful--some parts stained, other parts painted brown and some parts bare boards. But the floor guys came out on Monday and Tuesday and sanded them and made them look as they must have appeared--new, blonde--back when the house was built. 

And you won't believe this, but one of the floor guys looked like Tom Cruise. No, really. And Tom and I giggled about that.

But here's what I wanted to tell you. It sounds like we accomplished a lot, and yet there were whole hours I just sat and stared out at the land in deep silence. God kept hushing me, drawing me away from the work to just stare at all that green, green pasture land and trees of all sorts. 

He reminded me that what matters most is that I seek Him first--for when I do--everything else will get done. In due time. And in the right order, with a million less mistakes (always I make mistakes when I run ahead of Him).

So I stared in quietness and just healed from a hundred tiny--mostly unnamed and unknown--hurts, scratches and slights. You know, what wounds you by just being alive. And I found that quiet place again, the one inside. The one which drew me to the countryside, the one which draws me to Him.


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I so appreciate your congratulatory comments!

P.S. Can anyone recommend a 'natural' mosquito repellent? I'm always nervous using the stuff like OFF, etc. I'd appreciate any suggestions. Thanks!