Settling In

You would never think one has so much to do without a job, or kids for that matter, but you would be wrong. I told someone last week that when they invented the saying “a woman’s job was never done” that woman was probably moving! I swear to you, I will never see the end of unpacking. I packed my house up in NC in a week. Well, I have been unpacking for a week, also, and I am nowhere near done.

My new house looks like a storage facility threw up in it! Nothing is orderly. Everything that came out of boxes is stashed up, in less trafficked corners, apparently “out of the way”. But nothing can be out of my visual way, so to me, they’re just as bothersome as if they were piled up in my bed!

I know for some folks this could sound boring – just unpacking all day long, day after day, but to me, it’s a mission! I cannot settle in before everything has a designated spot and is out of my (or our) way.

Although the whole unpacking and cleaning business has been sort of stressful (and unsettling), on the other hand, I have been really enjoying just being here – if that makes any sense at all.

It’s been a life long dream to live in the mountains. Any mountains. A very dear childhood friend of mine used to tell me that “to love mountains you have to listen to them with your heart. Not with your ears, nor look at them with your eyes. Just feel and understand them with your heart.” My heart is filled with so much joy every morning, from looking at so much beauty! And every trip, however short, to the grocery store, or a place to eat, is an occasion to be breathless just by looking at the world around me. No effort needed.

Someone at my old job used to say about the Provo area that you can literally see mountains everywhere around you, out every window in the house. It’s true! You never forget you’re in the mountains. Everything is so beautiful out there, at the horizon, anything that’s in between you and that doesn’t really bear importance at all!

This weekend Aa. and I went for a walk on the Provo River. It was sort of eerie to me, because it felt very much like spring. And I have seen spring. And summer, this year – lots of them, this year, in NC. So, this was like somehow I turned back in time and landed in spring again!

The fresh, timid green of the trees, the chill in the air, the loud birds happy to be out and about again, the bubbling mountain river, rich and muddy with melted snow, everything spoke “spring”. No butterflies yet, and very few blooms.

I was so thrilled to find out that two of my most favorite plants are doing very well in this climate: grape vines and lilacs! The lilac trees were in full bloom, and beautiful purple, and the grape vines, although I didn’t take a close up of them (the owner was right behind the fence!), had fresh leaves and they were healthily hanging on to the fence! Yes! Next year, I’ll be all over those in the nursery and they’ll come home with me!

I will have to say that although I am not a humidity hater, like my husband, it is nice to be able to be out there in 80 degrees and not feel like you’re breathing water! The air is crisp and clean. They forecast pollen every day here, but I don’t see it, and don’t taste it in my throat and mouth like I did in NC! It’s very different.

I’ve managed to stop for a little bit and shoot some views around the house, as well as on the Provo River Parkway trail. The mountains, the lakes, the fast streams and the ages old surroundings all whisper familiarly to me that I am home. It’s a nice feeling, my heart says. Click here for these shots.