5 Acres of Solitude

One of the reasons that I loved this summer was the road trip QT Pie and I took to the mountains of Colorado to visit cousins. She was a great traveling companion. She got along well with my cousins’ dogs and cats and didn’t bite any of the kids who came her way. I was especially grateful for her good behavior. Here’s a picture of the view from the deck of their place. I loved sitting on the deck in the morning, drinking coffee in my warm robe and socks. TeeHee. Love, Lynne

I hated last summer………it was hot, the mosquitoes were especially mean, it seldom rained and the walls of the Airstream were beginning to close in on me. By the end of July QT Pie and I were getting on each others’ nerves. She was constantly in play mode and I got very little rest. I was glad when school started and I could focus on something else besides my pitiful self. Sooooo……..I was determined that this summer was gonna be better than last. I was out of the Airstream and in my new house for one thing. QT Pie was a year older and had Clyde to pester. Had to be better. It turned out to be my best summer ever.  I loved being at home. I loved being in the forest. The heat didn’t kill me. There were NO mosquitoes, fleas or ticks. I made several new friends. Wrote everyday. Loved it. Loved it. Loved it.

Now I’m back at work in the schools, staying home as much as I can. Being a hermit is beginning to appeal to me. Even have another documentary idea regarding such.

Love to you all,

Lynne

Welllll………….all the knick-knacks were not in their place and all the boxes were not off the deck, but my new house got rave reviews. My book group came Thursday night and they were impressed. The guys even had the bat house up and the banisters placed………..I love hearing and seeing folks’ reaction to the features of my house. I started this project with the notion that I wanted to feel like I was living in Art in Nature. Sure feels like I got my wish………My friend Jane identified the ‘personal’ theme that has developed. She’s going to make a photo book for me when I get things ‘perfect’ around here.  LOL…. as my friend Melody says.Thanks to Dawn for adding the pictures to my blog. She may be making some changes, so stay tuned.Love, Lynne 

I feel like I’ve moved into a mansion. Cousin Kathy came for a couple of days to help me move out of the Airstream. Yippee. It happened. Couldn’t have done it without her. Goal directed behavior has its merits. We even moved all the boxes of fragibles in my computer shed and got them unpacked. Now I have knick-knacks on all the surfaces of my new house. My book group is coming on Thursday……….I’d love to have all the book boxes unpacked and books and pretties in their places on the shelves………and the deck cleaned off. We’ll see. Depends on whether my team of workers shows up before Thursday. Weather is supposed to get nasty. Sure has been pretty lately though.I love my new house……………..Good things come to those who wait.Love, Lynne 

Hurricane Ike is coming. Latest reports say it will hit land early Saturday, probably in the Galveston area. Ordinarily I’d just be hoping for rain here. But there’s a chance we will get very high winds too. If there is anything I hate to be is stupid. And I don’t like being afraid either. Maybe I’ll stick with alert to advice and prepared. I did my grocery shopping yesterday, but I had to go back for cookies. I’m staying home this morning to do what I can and stay off of the packed highways. Scores of people are slowly making their way to the Austin area. Many shelters are already full. News is full of interviews with people who took what they valued and left their homes. I was in Conroe when Hurricane Rita evacuees jammed the highways for hours and hours. At that time I chose dealing with the hurricane over dealing with the traffic. I felt brave deciding to ride out the hurricane. As it turned out we didn’t get much more than a stiff breeze. This time Ive decided to honker down in my new house. It’s the sturdiest building I know for one thing. Not staying in the Airstream seems like a no brainer. I am packing my bags, taking the things I’d miss most if the Airstream blew to Kansas. I’m most concerned about flying debris around the new house.  Jess and Tucker are coming today to help me deal with piles of wood and equipment. I’m taking my bedrolls and rubber mattress and little tv. And my cookies. Pretty exciting………….Love, Lynne 

If I were the complaining type, I’d write about the hot dry summer we’ve had here in Texas. I’d also complain about how short the summer has been. Reminds me of the Woody Allen joke about the ladies’ complaining about the food at the nursing home. “The potatoes are lumpy and the portions are too small.” The best thing about the heat is that I can blame it for all that I have not accomplished this summer.  Still haven’t gotten my car cleaned out, for example. Don’t know where to put stuff. The Airstream is full. The shed is full. The storage locker is full. None of my friends seem willing to take stuff off my hands. Everybody is dealing with their own stuff. Oh well……….when my house is finished, I’ll be forced to deal with it all. It’ll be cooler then too.The heat is also a good excuse for me to head for the mountains. Which I am doing tomorrow. I’m flying to New Mexico for a writer’s workshop and music festival. Hope to see a friend or two while I am there. Maybe even do a road trip. I’m taking sweaters. Yippee.How do you feel about the heat???Love, Lynne  

It has come to my attention that a few of my friends check this blog occasionally to see if I have written anything. How cool. Thanks. And thanks for calling me lazy, Lloyd. I must have needed to hear it. Scott Peck, in People of the Lie, said we do not make the positive choices because we are lazy. I didn’t like reading that in his book and I didn’t like hearing the term applied to me. But I think I get it. Been denying that I have a lazy streak for a long time. Been blaming it on the heat.Soo…….if I haven’t been writing in my blog, what have I been doing???? Mainly whining about only having 6 weeks of vacation this summer. I had a full 3 months last summer……..Memorial Day to Labor Day. The way God intended school vacations to be. I needed every day of it too. I was dealing with stuff and moving to my Airstream in the forest. This year I’m still hoping to move into my new house. Could use more than a measly 6 weeks of summer vacation, though. But alas, whining is getting me NO sympathy. Especially not from my friends who don’t work in the public schools.Thanks for the inspiration to write. Always makes me feel good when I do.Love, Lynne 

Years ago I did workshops on successful aging…….called “What kind of old person do you want to be?” I had watched people age for years and thought I knew how to teach others to be good at it. It took me until this year to realize all I know applies to me. I wish I’d written this ditty that camr to me this morning frommy friend Rachel….who by the way, is doing a great job of aging. Love, Lynne

Old Age, I decided, is a gift.
I am now, probably for the first time in my life, the person I have always wanted to be. Oh, not my body! I sometime despair over my body, the wrinkles, the baggy eyes, and the sagging butt. And often I am taken aback by that old person that lives in my mirror, but I don’t agonize over those things for long.
I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful life, my loving family for less gray hair or a flatter belly. As I’ve aged, I’ve become more kind to myself, and less critical of myself. I’ve become my own friend.
I don’t chide myself for eating that extra cookie, or for not making my bed, or for buying that silly cement gecko that I didn’t need, b ut looks so avante garde on my patio. I am entitled to a treat, to be messy, to be extravagant.
I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging.
Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4 AM and sleep until noon?
I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 60 & 70′s, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a l ost love … I will.
I will walk the beach in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the jet set .
They, too, will get old.
I know I am sometimes forgetful. But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten. And I eventually remember the important things.
Sure, over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when somebody’s beloved pet gets hit by a car? But broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and compassion. A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.
I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turning gray, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face. So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn silver.
As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think. I don’t question myself anymore. I’ve even earned the right to be wrong.
I like being old. It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be. And I shall eat dessert every single day. (If I feel like it)
MAY OUR FRIENDSHIP NEVER COME APART ESPECIALLY WHEN IT’S STRAIGHT FROM THE HEART! MAY YOU ALWAYS HAVE A RAINBOW OF SMILES ON YOUR FACE AND IN YOUR HEART FOREVER AND EVER!
FRIENDS FOREVER!

In the woods………….I am a woman in the woods. I know that because I can see the woods out of the window in front of me. I am not a woman who longs to live in the woods. I am not a woman who dreams of living in the woods. I am actually her……doing exactly what I am supposed to be doing. How do I know that? Because living in the woods is what I am doing.

What a concept…..doing what I want to be doing. NOT doing what I don’t want to be doing. Making the happy choices. Can’t help it………there’s just no going back.

OKay……..I am a woman in the woods. I write about what I know. Thanks for the reminder and the encouragement.

Love, Lynne