Wednesday, January 7, 2009

that which brought me to now

For the past 8 years, my husband and I have been working on our retirement property in Olympia, WA. Five acres on the the water.

Our plan was to build a house there in 2007. After 6 years of weed-eating and cutting blackberries in the rain we built a "barn" with garage below and studio space above. At that time, retirement was just a year away. The house was already designed, my dreams were all in place.

After 6 (long) weeks of retirement, my husband started his own business. We realized that we wouldn't be building a house there for a long time, if ever, because it is too far from his customers in the Seattle area. I was very sad. I can weed-eat for 7 hours straight toward a dream but when the dream is gone, it is just work.

A year later we began to consider selling. We mentioned it to a friend who knew someone who might be interested. The whole life-changing transaction took only 6 weeks and by the last day of December 2008 the sale was complete. The new owners love it and will be good stewards of all our hard work. We are happy and we are sad.

So, today I painted a remembrance of late afternoon last Fall at the property. The focus is the lower driveway out to the road and our new life. Without the property, the chain saw and weed eater just sit. I'm painting. It will be good, as soon as I get used to it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wonderful painting, filled with light and obviously, love. Other dreams will come...

Making A Mark said...

I guess this one's a "keeper". I love looking at the colours you use.