Perching

Curiously I find myself perching again.

Perching. Such as what birds do when they are contemplating their next move. Some perch high on wires, some atop a windswept snag and some choose a comfy spot in the brush.

"Perching is that contemplative time between what was and what will be"
(me)

Normally in perch mode I am very anxious for you see I am a Nester. The comfort of the nest is what I crave. I wish for all my simple, small possessions around me - books, rocks, feathers, baskets, pottery, etc. Comfort in the familiar, the loved, the cherished. Waking each morning and knowing they are there is cozy. Cozy is nice. Boxes and clutter make me crazy, as do the inevitable packing, storing and the audacious nastiness of actually moving.

"A house is made of walls and beams; a home is built with love and dreams"
(Dr. William A. Ward)

However, we, as a family, are entering a new phase. The teenager is now in her own apartment awaiting classes to begin this her first year of college. We're readying the city house to sell and are moving back to the lake house. But, there's a catch. Hubby enjoys the city house with its conveniences; I enjoy the lake house surrounded by nature. As in all marriages compromise is the name of the game. Hubby and I have reached a compromise. We're going to sell both houses, eventually, and find another that we both enjoy. Good plan in today's real estate market, eh? If it were up to Hubby we would move every 5 years. He has a restless soul.

"He is the happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home"
(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

Peace is good. There is a part of me that has found peace with this decision. I'm at peace because our home is at peace. Teen angst is gone and there is no Empty Nest feeling at all in my soul. Instead, I'm busy planning the next stage of OUR lives, hubby and me. It's like beginning again. We are planning together, considering each others desires, talking of travel and what WE want to do the rest of our lives.

"A long marriage is two people trying to dance a duet and two solos at the same time"
(Anne Taylor Fleming)

My personal solo involves photography and greeting cards, a business of which is starting slowly, stutteringly, stopping and starting multiple times thanks to various family events, drama, and yes, moving. Again.

"I like to tell people that all of our products and businesses will go through three phases. There's vision, patience and execution."
(Steve Ballmer)

Currently, I'm in between the "patience" phase and the "execution" phase. So I'm perching again. I'm not certain what the near future holds but I am comforted this morning knowing that I've been strengthened by the past therefore I'm ready for just about anything. Stay tuned.

Self Explanatory

Don't laugh at a youth for his affectations; he is only trying on one face after another to find a face of his own. ~Logan Pearsall Smith, "Age and Death," Afterthoughts, 1931

Adolescence is perhaps nature's way of preparing parents to welcome the empty nest. ~Karen Savage and Patricia Adams, The Good Stepmother

Mother Nature is providential. She gives us twelve years to develop a love for our children before turning them into teenagers. ~William Galvin

The best substitute for experience is being sixteen. ~Raymond Duncan

Violet will be a good color for hair at just about the same time that brunette becomes a good color for flowers. ~Fran Lebowitz

There's nothing wrong with the younger generation that becoming taxpayers won't cure. ~Dan Bennett

When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years. ~Mark Twain, "Old Times on the Mississippi" Atlantic Monthly, 1874

I've been told that the average child's brain doesn't fully mature until they reach the age of 25. Let's hope that she and I both live to see that milestone.