Sometimes all we need

is a gentle reminder...Chillout

Catch-Up

I looked back through the blog and realized I have a lot of projects to catch-up on and to catch-you-up on.  I've been in a bit of free fall for the last month of so.  I can't pin-point why other than it's been almost a year since Mom died and last fall was the beginning of her downward spiral.  She and I spent a lot of time sitting outside in the cool autumn breezes and just the feel of the air, or the angle of the sun brings back memories of that bittersweet time.

And that leads to reassessment of my life, where I am, where I'm going. What's the quote from Emerson?  "Life is a journey, not a destination."

Tis a gift to be simple

The title comes from an old Shaker hymn,

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,

'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gain'd,

To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,

To turn, turn will be our delight,

Till by turning, turning we come round right.

Probably my first introduction to living simply, aside from being raised by depression-era parents, was as a teenager, visiting the Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill, Ky. It was a revelation that less stuff could make life more enjoyable and free the mind for pursuits other than acquiring, and then maintaining that which we acquire.  Shakers created beautiful furniture.  We've all had Shaker-style cabinets and chairs at one time or another, haven't we?  They did not procreate, thus the decline in Shakers.  And, they shook, or danced and spoke in tongues-early Holy Rollers.

But, I digress.  I've been following a new blog, To simplify and the title reminds me of that old hymn.  Not that he's living an Shaker life but on a scale of simple compared to most Americans, he's off the charts.  And he makes great music. 

Top of the World

We took a long weekend and headed to Fool Hollow in Show Low.  It's always a bit cooler up there and by this time of the year we have had it with the heat. Enough with the heat already! 

On Sunday we took a drive over Rte 260 to Heber since we had never traveled that road before.  As we were traveling we realized that 260 is the northern border of the area burned by the Rodeo-Chediski fire in 2002 and the damage is still very evident.  It's coming back but it will take a long time to fully recover.

As we were driving along, I was looking around trying to imagine what the area might have looked like when fully involved, if that's the correct term.  I had this sense of actually being at the top of the world and it took me a minute to realize that I could see no mountains, no land higher than I was.  There aren't many places in Arizona that you can't see mountains or mesas that are higher than you are.

Judy's Fix-It Shop

Do you ever have those times in your life when most things seem to be going just about right but then there are one or two that are just not working?  No matter what you do?  I'm not a person who thinks things will ever be perfect in every aspect, believe me. If you could walk around in my head you would know beyond a shadow of a doubt that that isn't me.  But I think we all know when something isn't working and probably won't because there are things beyond our control or other people are involved or, not involved, as the case may be.  I'm a bit, well, maybe a lot, of a controller. I think being a controller keeps me safe, really it just makes me tired.

The difficult part is deciding which things to keep, because a controller thinks she can fix everything and make it work.  She's Stronger, Faster, Smarter!  Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, more powerful than a speeding locomotive yada, yada, yada.

I have a hard time with the concept of broken beyond repair.

Day 2

It's like the Oklahoma Dust Bowl in here!  But I'm liking the look.

Day 1

Day 2

More to come...

DEMOLITION DAY

See this:

It will soon be gone.  Bad design decision that's pretty easy to remedy, well, it is if you pay your 2 sons to git'r done.  That's all adobe used to add more thermal mass to the room along with a bit of rusticity.  However, it got out of hand and now just takes up too much space.  Everytime I look at it, which is everyday, several times a day, all I can do is think about how to change it.  Not a peaceful state of being, so it's going!  Yes!

The stove will return to that position and will still be used to heat the house, the 3 times each winter its actually needed.  I tried to get rid of it, too, but was voted down.

The wall behind the adobe will be an opportunity for creativity but I have some ideas.  At the very least I will have to paint the whole wall because that's custom made clay paint.

The good thing about using adobe and some other natural materials is they can be reused.  The plan is for these bricks to be the foundation for an earthen oven at a friend's house.  We're even saving the mortar, which is basically mud.  It will be reconstituted and used for mortar again.

Stay tuned.