September. Unpausing the pause …..Medication finished for the tick borne illness, baby steps into the sun, still feeling a little dazed and confused from the lingering symptoms, but time to make the grand return to work.
“Work” << that’s the word old me would have normally followed up immediately and with an obnoxious amount of gratitude, with the statement … “I can’t believe I get to roll into one of the most naturally beautiful rustic spots on the North Fork and call it ‘work’!”…However I wasn’t feeling like that as of late.
I was feeling overlooked, undervalued, bogged down with menial tasks, and with all the restructuring happening, like my future there was quite uncertain.
We spend too much of our lives at work to hate it, and I didn’t want to muddle through and just collect a paycheck, so it seemed I had two options…Say f*ck it, and move on. Or show up and put my best foot forward. See what I could bring to the table, instead of just bitching under my breath.
Best foot forward it was and the next thing I knew I was securing a new title, a little mo’ money, and tackling some bigger responsibilities. Feeling challenged and inspired! Good stuff.
This brings me right into to my own personal best of the best….My best day ever! My birthday. Not just my best day of 2021. Not just the best of all my birthdays….The hands down best of all my days so far!
September 30, 2021. The day I turned 51.
Now while I have no doubt there will be many more not just happy, but truly amazing, incredible (a variety of awesome adjectives can be inserted here) days…Buuuut, If that one remains the most blissfully, magically, perfect…I’m ok with it.
Now in regard to birthdays in general, I’m a fan….For starters, they’re good to have! As a matter of fact, the more you have the longer you live! << Def stole that from a quote somewhere!
So what made 9/30/21 so particularly special? It was a day spent in full, from beginning to end, with only my very favorite people.
Kids grow up. Kids move away. Kids live their own lives, which is exactly what you want since you’re the one who encouraged that and hopefully provided a few tools for them to do so. However in those increasingly rare moments when they all gather with you at once, it’s a special kind of energy ….It’s truly pure magic.
That alone could have prompted it to be the best of the best, but there was more.
It was a perfect September day on the North Fork. The sky was bluer, the clouds were whiter, and the wind was perfect for sailing.
And sail through the day we did…Literally and figuratively. Aside from sailing, there was a picnic breakfast, beach combing, dinner out at a favorite local spot, songs sung to me from a stage by my fine singing sailor.
And finally we gathered around the table at 727 for a homemade birthday pecan pumpkin pie prepared by my favorite baker. A baker who puts so much love into every delicious creation she makes. (Watch out world for Tia’s treats, she’s on her way to rock the baking world!)
Ahhh 727….I told you last post they’d be more on 727 later. Our time there was coming to an end. 727 was for sale and in the hot little NoFo market getting it sold wasn’t going to take long.
Now the sale of this long standing family home obviously had a much greater impact on all those who have generational history and a bloodline connection to these walls that have held lifetimes within them.
I’m only here to tell my story though, and after being the self appointed lady of the manor for the previous two years, as we split our time between what we came to jokingly refer to as the country home (Cutchogue) and the city home (727), I felt a loss.
727 was more than a house, and even in its somewhat struggling state of maintenance, it’s beauty revealed itself. The presence of the past almost palpable.
I have lived in many homes through my life. I have left a bit of myself behind in each and taken with me only my own memories. 727 has left a piece of itself within me and I take the memories of many. Memories that have been shared with me through stories I’ve been told, pages I’ve read, maybe some I’ve daydreamed up, as well as my own I was fortunate enough to make there.
And now Schuyler Bogart’s , who built 727, portrait hangs in our hallway. A small framed picture found in the attic graces the wall in our room. It is of Schuyler’s before her time feminist~politically minded~ writer, wife Eva Albertson.
The original lady of the house, who upon learning of I promptly strolled around the corner to the small local cemetery and visited the family plot where I introduced myself to her proper and left behind a delicate shell as a gift.
A painting of 727 done by the most recent lady of the home before me, an incredibly talented artist, who is also my partner’s mother and whose blessings in my sense of 727 ownership meant so much, has a prominent place in our now full time home.
The spirit of 727 remains ours. It always will. It’s ghosts have joined us and they have settled in beautifully. I trust they will remain with us wherever we may go.
Where we (my partner and I) may go waits to be seen….Where we are now is officially full time cohabiting. Supporting each other through trials and tribulations. Creating family memories. And of course loosely plotting a future course. Let’s see what you’ve got in store 2022…
Seahorses and Sunflowers 🌻 