I love a good ol' West Virginia thunderstorm. And when you're on the river, the sound echoes up and down the valley. It's just so much cooler than CO storms. Maybe it's the altitude or the humidity. Whatever it is, I love it!

I spent yesterday going through the stuff I brought from the farm that I had stored in the shed here on the property. It was hotter than blue blazes. My time here is rapidly dwindling. In just over two weeks I head to Nelsonville for the music festival. I leave from there to head to Colorado. January and February crawled. They literally were 12 weeks long…EACH! April and May were an hour…combined! One of my sweetest friends is going to store a few things for me like my winter clothes and tires. And those dishes I can't part with. And one box of mementos. And that's it…I promise!

I conquered a lifelong fear yesterday. I was raised by a woman who saved her baby sister from drowning when she herself could not swim. My mom was deathly afraid of water and kept us away from it at all costs. Therefore, I have feared water since my earliest memory. This fear caused problems for me. Besides the uncomfortable feelings of anxiety, fear kept me from enjoying the social aspect of water activities. When I had children of my own, I made sure they learned how to swim at a very young age.

Aunt Lucy turned 100 years old yesterday. I took my Aunt Peeps (on the left) to the birthday party and caught this darling moment when Aunt Lucy finally realized who she was talking to. As with many elderly people, she is nearly blind and very hard of hearing. She is not my aunt by blood. But, we have a really unusual connection.

I'm beginning to feel the crunch of time a little bit. There's SO much to do before I head back to Colorado. We went from nice, spring temps to sweltering heat overnight so you have to make a mad dash in the mornings to get stuff done before it's too hot. I don't like the extremes of weather. If it was 65-75 degrees year round, I'd be a happy camper.

My word of the year…grace. I revisit it daily. I ponder. Am I living a life filled with grace? Am I exemplifying God's grace in my interactions with people? Am I searching for those moments where I can practice grace?

Life is full right now. I'm extremely busy wrapping things up here in West Virginia yet all I want to do is go out and play and enjoy the weather…the countryside…my friends. However, I've made commitments. To myself…to sort through my belongings and get the last of my things organized and distributed, either stored in my camper, donated, tossed or given to those who will love them as much as I did. To my aunt…as I promised my things would be gone by the first of June. To a friends of mine…that I wouldn't leave my stuff in her storage area in front of the things she needs access to. (Fail! She had to move some of my stuff yesterday and I felt bad I wasn't there to do it.)

I write every day. Sometimes I read what I write and it seems like someone else wrote it because I don't write that well. It's inspired from a higher source, I think. And sometimes I write and think to myself, "This is gosh awful." And, I'll be SO tempted to go back and chuck it all and start over. I've only done that a handful of times. Usually I let it go and it speaks to someone and I remember my prayer. I always pray over every post. I ask God to bring me the words to say and the reader that needs to hear them. It doesn't really matter whether I like the writing or not. It's not FOR me.

This has been my life song for the last couple of years. I have let go of so much since Mr. Virgo died…him being the biggest, baddest let go ever. My big house has been exchanged for a home on wheels. My material possessions are getting fewer and fewer even as we speak. My expectations have totally been changed. Even my faith has changed in that it has become stronger. I do a pretty fair job flying my own kite, yet I have a very real tendency to want to hold onto the tail…to maintain some semblance of control.

One of my favorite West Virginia treasures is Mountain Stage. Held at the West Virginia Cultural Center in Charleston, Mountain Stage is recorded before a live audience then broadcast on NPR the following evening. A lot of great entertainment...a big bang for your buck!

I've been thinking about this journey I've been on over the last couple of years. It hasn't been a straight path by any stretch of the imagination. It's all wiggly squiggly and brings me forward then back then forward again. And along the way there are a number of doors and little secret passageways that offer distractions from the course at hand. Some are really inviting. Some are definitely marked "Enter At Your Own Risk". And each has a gift tucked somewhere inside. An experience. An opportunity. A lesson to be learned.

Women are amazing beings. We are fire and ice, blood and wine, satin and steel. We can do anything. Yet, I hate telling young girls they can be anything they want when they grow up because they have never considered it a possibility that they COULDN'T. I used to say that. Now, I prefer to encourage them to find their passion and go for it with everything they have in them.