Uncle Tom

I miss you Uncle Tom.

So much.

When my heart can bear it I will share with you about this great man.

xo

Kimberly

Dear Readers.....I have missed you!

I have been busier than ever but I think about sitting down to write each and every day and then somehow that winds up at the bottom of the list each evening. I could write a lot about what I have been up to lately but I will save that for another time and the new blog......more on that later! What feels important today is to share a conversation I had with Sharlyn this morning.

The topic was listening.

Reverential listening.

Sharlyn has a friend in a deep crisis.....a serious turning point......a major life choice. The kind of choice that no person would ever want to be faced with. I can't share the details but what I can say is that this situation led her to share deeply with Sharlyn last night about her grief. Her grief is deep and on some level will be life long. I imagine that some peace will come in stops and starts but still the pain will linger deep in her heart until her very last breath. So the important lesson that I feel compelled to share is that Sharlyn and I have been talking a lot lately about reverential listening. What it is, how to be better at it, the importance of it.....so many times when others are talking we are formulating what we are going to say next and although we might be hearing we aren't truly listening. Do you know what I am talking about? Of course you do. I want people to always feel that I am deeply listening to them from a place that is not trying to respond instantly with the next clever thing to say but rather from a place that is calm, centered and sacred.

Sharlyn found that last night the only way she could really respond to her friend's grief was through this kind of listening. There was no rushing to fix it. Because she can't. There was no crafty combination of words to cheer her up or ease the pain or offer a glimmer of hope. There was just two ears allowing the words to gently float in and sit and rest.

This is not easy when we love someone and we want to ease their pain. It is hard to sit in the fire with a friend and ignore the desire to throw a bucket of water on it. It is a spiritual practice to just be with anger. Be with pain. Be with heartache. Be with grief. To sit still and let the chaos swirl around us and not rush in with word, thought or action to fix it when there truly is no fix.

Join me in this if you will........deeply listening to one another. With reverent attention. With hearts wide open. With love.
Till next time.....
Kimberly

I love old things.....

I was at my mother-in-laws for dinner one night last fall and mentioned that

I would like an old rotary dial phone.

Preferrably a light blue....who knew she would walk out to the back room and hand me this exact phone.

Somebody gave it to my father-in-law and he brought it home. When I asked why he gave it to him she said she didn't know. He is a bit of a hoarder so I guess people just give him random things.

Whatever the reason I am now the proud owner of this phone and here is what I can tell you about it.

It makes me talk less and really focus on the person I am speaking with.

I can't wash dishes. I can't reach the computer. I can't take a bath or take care of other bathroom duties.

I can't take the dog out or drive the car.

It doesn't fit in my pocket.

It makes me slow down.

It makes me listen deeper.

It makes me spend less time on the phone.

You only want to be connected to that cord for so long.

It's good.

Very good.

I think our world is just too much sometimes.

Kids dying because they are reading or typing a text and get in an accident.

There is no reason for this.

Just because we can talk in the car doesn't mean we should.

I am working hard at making my car a no phone zone.

What happened to the days when we did one thing at a time.

I long to create a more simple life.

To eat vegetables I grow.

To make jam with berries I pick.

To just sit and talk on the phone for 15 minutes and really listen to the person on the other end.

How about you?

On another note:

If you wondered where I disappeared to....................

 I happened to leave my laptop in a precarious spot and it happened to take a tumble and then it had to go spend some time with the nice people at Geek Squad. Then I lost the diamond in my wedding ring - a week before our 20th wedding anniversary. Then Scott hit a deer and came about $500 shy of totaling the car. Heidi and Lilly and I were in the car and it was pretty scary. So grateful we are fine. I also found out some disturbing news about somebody that had been a lifelong friend. Then my teenager made some very bad choices. All the while I painted nearly every single day since February 12 at our new house which is getting very close to being ready for us to move in!!!!!! So that is the very short version of the very long story of why I have not shared on the blog in several weeks.

I have not forgotten you.

Not a chance.

Stay tuned for a visual tour of my dream home in progress....

Drink Pepsi

Is it possible to have decorating overload?

Is it possible to to have a newly discovered but very serious disease called decorating ADD?

Is it possible to paint your new living room for the third time?

Is it possible that spring is right around the corner?

Yes, all of this is true. I have not forgotten this little blog
 or my readers.

I have just been 6 foot up on a ladder with a roller in one hand and a cup of chai in the other.

Either that or sound asleep. Those are pretty much my two speeds right now. In between those
 two options you might be able to spot me at Lowe's.

We actually hung up the first thing at the new house yesterday.
 A vintage pepsi sign from an old cafe'/deli that I loved called Sadie D's
.
I use to love this sandwich she served called 'Apple of My Eye'. Multi grain bread, mustard, thinly sliced smoked turkey, Granny Smith apple and cheddar cheese with a little lettuce too.
YUM.

I drooled over this old Pepsi sign many a time.
 One day the cafe' closed. I was sad.
I wondered about the Pepsi sign.
Where did it go?
I wanted it.
In time I moved on and let it go and actually forgot about it.
Until................driving to town one day there was a big yard sale with stuff everywhere.
The kind where you almost get in an accident because you are rubbernecking to
see if you should stop or not.
You know what I'm talking about.
that I spotted it..............................THE PEPSI SIGN.
I screamed so loud that I scared my husband. I stopped so quickly I nearly snapped his neck.
 Good thing he loves me.
And good thing he had $175 dollars tucked away in his wallet and parted with it so I could have this:

That was right before we started building our new house (FOUR years ago!) I had it stored out in the garage thinking it wouldn't be long until we could hang it up in our beautiful new kitchen. After about a year I hauled it into our current house and hung it up in the dining room. Partly because I wanted to look at it and partly because I wanted it to motivate me to dream that the new house really would happen.

Last night we took it off the wall, took it to the new house and

HUNG IT UP IN THE KITCHEN!!!!!!

See the top of that bench below the sign? I purchased that before we even broke ground too.

I fell in love with it at a local antique store and because we had the blueprints I was able to take measurements and see that it would fit just where I had envisioned it,

I bought it and it hung out in the garage with the Pepsi sign too.

When I hauled the Pepsi sign in the bench came with it.

They just go together.

And now they are at the new house just waiting on us to finish the painting.

Install a toilet or two, create a makeshift kitchen, clean the floors and move the beds,

the dishes, the dogs, the cats, the clothes and ourselves.

It won't be long.....2-3 weeks maybe.....

Can you believe it?

It is time. It is the perfect time.

Stay tuned...

LOTS more photos coming soooooooon.

Promise.

xo Kimberly

p.s. The photo is of our old house....wait till you see it in it's new home against a 50's vintage bluish/greenish/tuquoiseish color. A little darker than I usually paint but it works!

Stay tuned....I won't stay away so long this time so check back soon.

I'm. Still. Here.

This would have been day 13 of painting at the new house...IF I had actually gone there to paint.

Can you say meltdown?

I just couldn't get it together today to do anything. I can't seem to write three checks

and put them in envelopes with stamps and drive to the post office. I can't seem to tackle the dishes,

the laundry, the vacuum, the dinner. I can't seem to get the laptop off my lap.

I can't seem to stop drinking hot organic chai with creamy 1/2 and 1/2.

I can't seem to clear my mind.

Can you say overwhelm?

I am trying to be okay with just being still but this house is a mess and the new house isn't done and dreams are coming true very quickly. I didn't know that it was going to this hard.

It is tempting to think that you will suddenly be a different person when you are living your dreams.

But, NOPE....you are still just you.

I haven't forgotten about the happiness report...but today is not the day.

Stick with me tho, okay?

I'll be back with happy thoughts and pictures too.

xo

Happiness Report coming SOON!!!

I'm here.

I'm happy.

I'm hopeful.

I can feel the magic brewing.

I have decided to share my full happiness report after 48 hours instead of 24.

That would be tomorrow....sometime....who knows I might just shoot for a full 72 hours of happiness.

Watch out people, she's on a roll.....

But for right now I am knee deep in paint samples.

Maybe some people want a blue kitchen and they just go to the store and

choose 3 or 4 samples and pick from those.

NOT ME.

Not a chance. I have to pick around 50 (at least).

Then I have to see them in the day light, the natural light, candle light, night light.

Then I have to buy a small sample and paint it

on the wall to be sure.

You have to be sure.

It's a feeling I'm going for.

In this case I have painted huge leftover pieces of sheetrock and put them in the rooms

that may be painted that color.

It may be a sickness. I'm not sure but I KNOW I am not alone.

I find that comforting.

I have so much to say about happiness so please come back

very soon and I will tell you everything.

Going for the Happy

Today I am going for happiness.

I have had so much to do, so much stress...for soooooo long.

 I see the dreams coming true.

I should be ecstatic but I have been missing it because
I am overwhelmed/scared.

Believe it or not it is scary to have your dreams coming true.

Who knew?

After a long heart to heart with my soul sister last night we decided to just go for the happy.

I will report back later today about where I found happiness (hopefully with photos)

In the meantime I hope you follow happiness
wherever it leads you.

Think about this too:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Used by Nelson Mandela in his 1994 inaugural speech