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Tis the season once again….
Before I begin giving our own personal “State of the Union” address, I want to thank each and every one of you because you have made a difference in my life. Even though there are many years and many miles between us, I believe that our spirits are always as close as a thought. We need only to quiet ourselves for a moment to reach out to each other and realize that we are not alone. My love and support are with everyone of you, my dear friends. I’m so glad that we’ve had a chance to be together, even if only for a short time, on this journey. In these words, I send you my most sincere wishes for a joy filled, healthy and prosperous year ahead. Peace, laughter, and love be with you in every moment.
If I could have a wish this season, it would be to introduce all of you to each other.
Beth and Karla and Colleen, I can see you being very good friends, since each of you are in the same situation; you each have a very strong faith which is the bedrock of your existence even though each of you express that in different ways.. You all live with integrity an refuse to compromise your principles, you are all living the single life, and have a lovely home with your mothers. All of you have your mothers still living and healthy and you both realize how precious that is. I’m so fortunate to have had a chance to know you.
Laura, you would enjoy these gals, and you share many things with them, especially that wonderful bond with your mother. You know the mother /daughter bond from both sides, as do Norma, Teresa and myself. We are all in the “Crone” stage of life… and it’s a good place to be. We are done with the problems that arise from having hormones running out of control and we’ve all lived long enough to appreciate every moment that we have here. We can take to time to stop and enjoy the way the sunlight looks coming through the windows in the morning. The feel of the wind playing through our hair, and the fresh smell of rain. What a great place to be in life.
Martha, you have such a loving heart, and you give, give, give, to everyone. Thanks for your notes. It may not seem like much to you, but I have really appreciated them. It seems that you know just when to give an encouraging word. You may not be rich here on earth, but you are building a mansion in heaven.
Arryn, I am so proud of you for making the decision to continue with your education. Your persistence and determination are unbelieveable. You are doing great, and what ever your final choices are for your career and life path, you will have my support. (If only I had been that smart, that early...!) Good job! You are becoming more beautiful by the minute, both inside and out. (Oh, by the way... Mary Kay is Fantastic!) You help me more than you will ever know. Thank you.
This year has been truly a year to be grateful for, to give thanks for. We have gotten healthier, realized at least one dream, and found a better, more peaceful way of life…. Not that it’s completely stress free, and we have much further to go, but certainly a big improvement.
Of course the big BIG news is our move out of the frantic pace of the big city and into the beautiful soft mountains of the Smokies. Having our own home, with a little land is the realization of a life long dream. Choosing this particular location in Asheville is something that we are still amazed at. Having been born and raised in the “North” I had always declared that I would never be interested in living in the Southern / Southeastern portion of the country. In fact, I didn’t even want to do any traveling in that area. I had expected to find a great amount of “anti-Yankee” prejudice here. Although there is some of that, it is not the big deal I thought it would be. Much more than the Yankee / Confederate feelings, the community is divided into Natives / Transplants…. The “Transplants” being people like ourselves who have moved into the area out of choice, whether their point of origin is New York or Atlanta, …. Making a conscious selection of this area with the intention of living a more wholesome, balanced life in a pleasantly moderate climate and beautiful surroundings. Unfortunately, the very fact that a person HAS a choice, is cause for resentment among the natives. Newcomers have driven up the housing market, increasing the cost of housing for everyone and the property taxes of established home owners. In a place where under-employment is one of the major problems this is bound to cause some resentment. There is no really “good” solution to this situation. Someone has drawn a comparison to the natives and the original Native-Americans (Cherokee) who were driven out by the Scotch – Irish settlers. It’s not a bad analogy.
On a positive note, we
have noticed a HUGE difference in our stress levels. We are actually able
to walk (exercise ) in our neighborhood without worrying about the gangs
or drug deals or drive by shootings….
We get quite a workout just by doing our yard work. Since we don’t
yet have a riding lawn tractor, and our yard goes down in steep steps in
the rear, it’s quite aerobic. Another major difference that I’ve
noticed is the ability to get a really sound nights sleep, something I have
not done in since High School! My normal night was good if I only woke once
or twice and got a total of 6 hours sleep. A bad night would be insomnia
with 2 or less hours of sleep total. In the last three months, I have experienced
sound, deep sleep almost every night and the insomnia has completely disappeared.
The other big thing that has made a major difference in our lives is the Atkins diet. I began doing Atkins last spring when my Dr. told me I was pre-diabetic. My alternatives were to lose weight or to be on insulin within another year. I was really surprised because we had been following a “heart-smart” eating plan for years… everything low-fat, no butter, high on the complex carbs, lots of fruit & vegetables, and red meat only once or twice a month. It had not worked very well, (at my heaviest I was around 170 - and only 5’1”…) We were both severely overweight and tired all the time. Since I knew the diet recommended by the AHA and ADA didn’t work… I did some research and found that one thing that seemed to be getting results for diabetics (type II) and heart patients alike was the Atkins diet. I began doing Atkins by myself, and continued to try and cook as always for Bill. He didn’t say too much at first, but after a couple of weeks, he was just not eating the potatoes, bread or pasta and soon joined me. Once we made the decision to get serious about counting our carbohydrate intake we really began to drop the pounds. I’m not going to go on and on about the Atkins diet or try to convince anyone else that they should try it. It has done wonders for us but it is a major life change and yes, there are times when we really have a craving for hot bread, or pasta, or a piece of apple pie, or Ben & Jerry’s. But.. . as I tell myself almost everyday,… “ yes, I really do want that piece of pie, scoop of ice cream, plate of pasta,… but I don’t want it badly enough to give up one of my toes for it.” If it’s not “toe-worthy” it doesn’t go into my mouth. It does help to have the support of a partner that is going through the same struggles. We have both gone down several waist-sizes. I no longer look like I have swallowed a watermelon from the side. We have more energy, and our immune systems have become much stronger. The Flu was everywhere down here a few weeks ago. While everyone around us was suffering from the flu we had a slightly hoarse throat for a day or two and were fatigued for about a week, but never actually came down with the full blown virus as everyone else seemed to.
Arryn has also made the move to Asheville, and has her own apartment on the other side of town. Bill’s parents and brother have sold their property in Chicago and purchased a place here as well. Three acres and a rambling house on fairly flat land and only 5 minutes from us. They will be staying with us for about 3 wks and should be able to move into the new place after January 7th.
We can see that our lives have improved in many ways since coming here, but even so, we feel that there is yet some other reason that we were drawn here, to this place. We often comment on the synchronicity of events that led us here, and is still continuing to be active in our lives. We were fortunate in finding the place that we wanted… and it was the very last option that we looked at. The financing was almost stopped in underwriting but went through at the last minute. We have had a struggle finding employment, but Bill now has a job at Blue Ridge Community College, (in IT) and he has found the people to be very pleasant to work with. My own employment situation seems to be on hold for some reason that we don’t understand yet, but Bill keeps telling me that there is a reason for everything and it will all work out for the best. (He’s stealing MY lines!)
Yesterday, our land gave up it’s secrets to Bill, and finally allowed him to find the underground spring that was shown in the survey, but hidden by underbrush and brambles. That was pretty exciting. We worked to clear away some of the debris and rocks that were hiding it and can already see the water bubbling out of the ground and running downhill into a small ravine that dumps out into Kenilworth lake about ¼ mile form here. We are hoping to have a well-digger in the spring to plant a 300 gal. reservoir (a large plastic holding tank) and pump and then run piping UP hill to our yard. From there, I can create the water garden that I’ve been wanting, and we can use the extra water to turn our yard into a showplace without running up the water bill!
Well, I could go on, but enough is enough!
Merry Christmas my friends and a wonderful year ahead in 2003. May we all enjoy every moment and know that our lives are richer because we know each other.
Mia