In April of 2025 my husband, Chuck, and I made the decision, in consultation with our children to accept a life change for ourselves. Through a process of several months what developed was an invitation from our daughter and her family to share an inter-generational home. We have children in Canada and the Mid West of the US who support us in this process of considering an inter-generational home with our PNW family.The goal would be for us to be together through our elder years, both for support from our children as we age, but also to support our family at a time now in our collective lives that is more challenging due to the chaos now occurring on the planet. My daughter and husband have two young sons. They live about 45 minutes away from us. As grandparents, an inter-generational home will give opportunity to help guide these boys as they grow into their teen years. Their eldest daughter is now living on her own. We are impressed and quite proud of her self care process. We are equally proud of our three adult grandchildren in Canada are each doing exception in their chosen live as well.
As the decision to form a household together took form, it included doing research regarding the most practical and economical area to live as a family together. It also requires selling our current home and purchasing a home that will allow two families to have enough space to live comfortably together. A great deal of thought has gone into this decision as one might imagine. In the beginning of January of 2025 we were invited to move to Portugal with dear friends. This loving invitation is what led our family to decide to create an inter-generational home environment. Chuck and I did two months of research about the ins and outs of moving permanently to Portugal. We were very excited about the idea and made plans to travel to be with our friends in April of 2025. That plan failed as the week before the flight, I injured myself and was not able to travel that long distance. In early December of 2024 we were invited to Sante Fe to visit long time friends of Chuck's. We did take a journey to Sante Fe in early March for a week. We considered possibilities of moving there as well.
Our discomfort with where we are living now is purely financial. The details of which I will not go into as they soon became irrelevant. What Chuck and I discovered was that neither of us were willing to move out of country and away from the opportunities afforded us here to be close to our family. Other factors were also included around health insurance, etc. We spent several months going over the details and pro and cons together. Over the last year we have spent hours researching. we made several travel journeys to visit various locations in Washington state that may work for us to purchase an inter-generational home. With deep heart searching, the past year has led us to what we feel is a solid decision to accept our families offer of living together. With that the decision regarding the type of dwelling we need so that there is space for each person to have separate autonomy as individual family members and based on our physical needs had begun.
We put our place on the market for sale in late April of 2025. From that time to now we have basically been living in limbo, packing for preparing the home for selling, and with sometimes only a few hour notice, perspective buyers coming to look investigate. It also includes preparing our home for what is called a three hour long "open house" twice monthly in which we are not allowed to be around for. We have had some buyer interest and traction but not as much as we hoped and certainly not in the time frame we had hoped. Our vision has been tested a great deal! We are continuing with the sale this year, now in February of 2026, with an affirmed vision for the plan we began to set in motion almost 10 months ago now. Much of my time has been spent keeping our place in order for people to come through. Needless to say this has been exhausting, as many of our things have gone into boxes for the preparation of the home sale and the move. Which of course leads to unrest defined as internal and external chaos for the most part. We continue as a family with the medicine hope and love.
Today is February 10, 2026. I have used much of my time over this past many years to write on my blog, which is a self care action that is always self healing and magical learning experience. I have been writing a narrative on my blog about myself titled, "First Daughter Still Standing", for a while now. I have spent the last few years, since the beginning of my full retirement in 2022, working on how to say good bye to my parents and honor them both respectfully in the process. In late November, as the winter was just beginning, I chose to let go of the chaotic process of selling our place and let it be what ever it was going to be. During these winter days as I put all of that on pause, I have given myself permission to rest a great deal. Allowing myself space for reflection through long walks and quiet times of self care. The process has shown me it's now time to take a break from writing on my personal narrative and writing about how to say good bye to my parents, to actually saying good bye. to release my constant and heavy questions of how I got to the 77th year of my life and let go of the travel time machine, filled with all of the ways that I became who I am and release the blocks Ive been working on that are filled with pain and sorrow. Time to move into today. Into February 2026, with the medicine of hope.
It's time for me to create space for the day in early spring when the Frogs Begin to Sing!
I want to walk into the tender acceptance of creating intentions for future plans that bring me joy. In my restful state over the last couple of months I have taken the time to listen to what is happening in the world around us related to the painful collective chaos and into the budding transformation of what is now called by our Indigenous relations as "The Great Turning". Right here right now, I acknowledge that my life is a miracle....and that it is up to me to receive the blessings and honor the gifts of joy that come from understanding that we are in a collective transformational time, as the astrology tells us and as the healers are sharing. I want to acknowledge "The Great Turning" and fill my days with noticing the joy right in front of me...today. I'm very good at understanding awakening actually. The whole of my life has prepared me for this moment!! It's who I am and how I've lived my life all along. Listening to the sound of the awakening of life's gifts IS how I have survived the trials on this trail called my life of these now 77 years. It is time to blaze yet another trail for myself, a new trail of Elderhood. Let go of the weight of my past. It's all there in my stories, here on my blog which I started in 2010. I will continue to revise and edit my work as I choose to and over time. Now I need to carry myself forward into the years of life I have left on this beautiful planet that is our home. Come what may t,his blog has been a blessed home for me and my personal writing trail for documenting my life's story.
I have been resting a great deal these weeks of winter. Quieting myself. Practicing my skills necessary for my well being in all aspects of my life. Feeling frustrated and moving through the process of my experiences is not ending, I know that much. Like a painting the learning is all in the process not necessarily in the end result. I'm curious! I'm listening! I'm learning! I am awaitingfor the Spring Equinox in the still of my heart.
It's time for me to awaken now and focus on what I want to do with the rest of the time that I'm blessed to be around on our beautiful Mother Earth. Planting seeds of hope and restoration and renewalwith curiosity and mindful intentions.
Photo of Glorious Fireweed Seeds taken in the summer of 2020.
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