In My Other Happy Place

Any of you who have followed me for any length of time know my happy places. With Mr. FixIt and my family…at The Farm…on the tractor at Marshmallow Ranch…or in the Camper. Yesterday was such a cozy day and I was definitely feeling my happy titer rising. Gail and I knitted for awhile, then went to town, hoping to visit with Lonnie at Mama’s Attic before she closes up shop, but she was closed till today. I’ll try again later. By the time we fiddled around town, I was starving so we went to The Roadhouse for lunch.

Gail’s Autumn Sedum

When we got back to the campground, it was siesta time. As soon as I got in the camper, it started pouring the rain down. I didn’t nap…I just lay there drifting to the sound of raindrops on the roof of the camper. I seldom revisit my early days of camping when I was newly bereaved and wandered through the wilderness and backroads of Colorado. However, I do let my mind wonder at how different things are now.

After the Rain

I can distinctly remember the very early days of The Grand Adventure. I was barely at my first campsite and I got really sick with a bad cold. I was prepared for just about any eventuality, so I took medicine, ate soup, and stayed cuddled up in bed for three days. I’ll bet I slept twenty hours a day that week. I was so tired. I’d been running around like crazy since Mr. Virgo died. There was SO much to do, and I really hadn’t given myself much time to just be with my grief.

A very faint but full arc rainbow.

I can’t say I ever became friends with grief. But I did learn how to live with it…eventually. That little camper…TOW-Wanda…was my safe place. My healing place. My cocoon when I could block out the world and just BE. The camper itself is what I became friends with. It’s ability to embrace me and hold my tears and fears for safekeeping. I still feel that magical embrace when I enter my space.

I am so incredibly blessed to have a husband that holds me close while he lets me go at the same time. He so generous and loving and patient and kind. I miss him tremendously when I am away from him. And when we get back together after time apart, it’s the act of coming home when I feel his warm embrace.

I don’t take a moment of that for granted. I know how fast things can change so I make sure he knows just how cherished he is. Yes, I am blessed with so many happy places. This is just one of them. We called in the owls again last night. This time I got a picture of a beautiful Barred Owl in the tree not twenty feet from me.