Falling Leaves Road Race

I’ve discovered that when I run I am truly lost in the moment.  Last weekend I traveled to the homeland (Utica, NY) to run the Falling Leaves 5K.  I’d signed up much earlier in the year at the motivation of my cousin Dana and friend Traci.  I need to sign up for races or I’d never motivate myself to get out there and run.

It turned out to be a family thing.  Race day was cloudy with intermittent drizzle.  It was about 10 degrees, so it was cold when I arrived in downtown Utica.  I knew it would feel good once we started.  Also running that day was Dana’s husband and daughter.  Her youngest was participating in the kids’ fun run.  Before the race I looked around for my cousin Tim and his wife, and sure enough they were there too! 

But the best surprise was when my cousin Kim showed up unexpectedly.  Her husband had just had some surgery the day before and I wasn’t even sure if she had signed up.  But there she was all of a sudden, sneaking up behind us!  This was Kim’s first 5K.  She’s been the most religious exerciser out of all of us for sure.

The race started soon after she arrived and immediately we took off fast.  There were only about 800 people running, which seems like a lot, but is not really.  So it was pretty open from the start.  I ran fast my first kilometer, but reminded myself to slow up in the middle so I would have energy to go as fast as possible at the end. 

This race to me felt so spiritual.  I had a big happy smile on my face the whole time.  We ran up Genesee  Street past all these Utica landmarks.  Maybe it all felt like the ancestors were watching, I don’t know, but I felt light on my feet.  As we came up on this apartment building, a woman was out on her balcony watching.  I looked up at her and waved like I knew her and she waved back.  That’s what I mean, it felt so much like our souls had connected.  There wasn’t much of a crowd watching, there was too much drizzle.  So having any spectator felt good.

Right after seeing the woman and her beautiful soul, I thought of my cousin Dan and my eyes got all misty.  It was hard to tell that mist from the rain, but I took deep breaths and got back into the moment.

My legs felt great the whole run, only my lungs hurt some from breathing so deeply.  At the end, I ran as light and fast as I could, but it was slightly downhill on wet pavement, so I was careful too.  I finished at 31:39, which is not my personal best, but is really respectable given I don’t practice all that much.  I felt all energized after running and so I took off up the sidewalk to find Kim.  I wanted to cheer her on.  I ran with her a bit until she got near the end and then I headed inside for treats.

My reward at the end was Hemstrought’s half moon cookies!

And knowing I ran with family, and I finished well!  Lots of fun!

Groceries

Here's what $ 80 bought me today.  I'm not sure if this is good or bad.  I had made out a menu ahead of time and also made a list that I stuck to.  My goal is that this lasts easily for 2 weeks given what I already have at my house.  I don't buy nor eat much meat.  Buried in that pile is a pound of turkey burger which I will be making into a meat loaf next Sunday.

$ 80 of food

Things I will make from the pile are a Buddha Bowl (it's couscous and spinach with a bunch of veggies), a carrot salad with chick peas and feta, a breakfast casserole that I can make into ready to eat pieces and freeze.  Some of these items are for snacks over the next two weeks.  Many will go towards breakfast.

I try to make a main meal for lunch and then have something more simple like a salad at dinner.

I bet if I put my mind to it I could go three weeks on this and all the food already in my cupboards and freezer.  Want to see me try?  I'll start by listing some of the "stock"  I have and then the menus to support them.

In the freezer:  Two servings of chicken (enough to create 6 servings of a meal).
                      One serving of shrimp (enough to create 1-2 servings).
                      4 veggie burgers, and several veggie morning sausages.
                       Peas, corn, spinach, asparagus, onions and peppers
                        brussel sprouts
                       Peaches, blueberries, mixed fruit
                       One loaf of bread

In the cupboard:    6 cans of various beans
                               1 can chicken
                             4 large cans of tomatoes
                             3 cans tomato sause
                            2 boxes of cereal
                              4 things of rice
                             4 things of quinoa
                              couscous
                              a pound pasta
                               9 snack sized bags of smartfood popcorn

In the fridge:         18 eggs
                           3 litres milk
                              big bag spinach
                             feta, parmesean, cheddar cheeses
                              10 yogurts
                              two peppers
                                lettuce
                                various dressings and marinates
                                olives
                               carrots shredded
                               parsley
                                10 individual packs of hummus


Wow!  Making the list was eye opening.  When you have that much food, it's time to get cooking...not shopping.  I've no doubt I can do 3 weeks.

Here's this weeks basic menu outline:

Week One:  Breakfast = cereal
                    Lunch = gnocchi with shrimp and asparagus
                     Dinner- salad with tuna, feta, a few olives and my garden fresh tomatoes

Later in the week I will make the carrot salad and eat things like an egg fried in a diced tomato base, tomato and cheese sandwich, a buddha bowl.

Week Two:  Breakfast Casserole
                 Lunch = meatloaf and brussel sprouts, snacks of yougurt
                  Dinner= could be any of the following: salad, yogurt, eggs, cereal, hummus, buddha bowl, quinoa                   with beans....etc.....


Week Three:  Breakfast:  There are still eggs and veggie sausage to eat with fresh tomatoes
                      Lunch :  Quinoa with chicken
                         Dinner (see above)

As always, there is smartfood, cheese, hummus, fruit, yogurt and bread with peanut butter and homemade jam to snack on.

So here goes nothing!  Three weeks, no grocery store!  Wish me luck!
                       

The trip to New Hampshire and Maine 2013

The Group!  21 years after college graduation.

 It’s now become an annual tradition to meet up with my former college friends in the summer. This year we went to NH to meet up with Matt and Kelly’s family. They all have children and so together we numbered 13.  The kids look forward to this so much.  It’s great that they all get along, but for those few days, they act like they knew each other daily.  Now that they are older, I enjoy chatting with them also.

Our adult conversation this year was about food, frugality, house, a little bit of politics, social media, and health.  Kelly, as always, astounded us with her simple ability to be “Mom”.  She baked two pies from scratch!  Yes, she made a homemade crust!!!  I really should have taken a picture. 

Children learn from their parents' behaviors!  LOL!

Our first day we ventured to a farm where they had really cute little animals.  There was a calf that kept seeking attention and head scratches like a puppy.  Then there was the cat on the “mossy shingled roof”.  I learned there are chickens that lay colored eggs.  They are nicknamed Easter Eggers.  We also walked around three corn mazes and created lightsabers/ swords out of corn stalks.  And yes the kids are all budding nerds.  They spent a chunk of time coming up with fake song titles for a fake band.  Amanda brought her guitar and they created a parody of a 1Direction song that rivaled Weird Al’s (naw, it was way better than Weird Al).  Jack, Bridget and Kevin were more than happy to share their love for Dr. Who (now I really have to watch/catch up).  At the farm we had ice cream that was so good I may never be the same.  I had raspberry with chunks of brownies in it…a perfect marriage!

#Hashtag

We ate well!  Matt grilled, we had pizza, there was homemade pie.  I brought peaches from my tree and now Vinny is in love with peaches and wants a tree for their yard.  We all garden.  K & M has 6 acres.  We ended up taking a two hour walk to the bog and the creek that borders their property.  It was so beautiful and peaceful.  I’d be there every day if I lived there.  However, let’s face it, we all take the beauty of our own locations for granted.  That’s why I wrote the Loving Albany post (w.i.p). 

Finally, as if it wasn’t special enough to reconnect with people you lived with 20 years ago (as if it’s only been like 5 years and not more…I love picking up right where you leave off).  We saw a meteor shower.  I just laid in the driveway to get a better look.  The sky was so clear that you could see the Milky Way.  I saw about a half dozen “shooting stars”.  It was more amazing than any planetarium, that’s for sure. 

The kids said Katniss!  I said, "Katniss at 43!"

On Monday I left for Dover, NH.  My great grandmother Mary Cunningham grew up there (she was born in Pennsylvania).  My first stop was the library so I could look her up in the city directory.  After searching the wrong years, I found her in 1909.  She was listed as a border at 41 Forest Ave., and a worker at the Velvet Mill.  Her brother John, worked at Cocheco Falls Millworks which is used differently these days.  Dover was once a textile mill city, but unlike some mill cities that have decayed over time, Dover is an attractive small city.  I walked around there for well over an hour.  I barely remembered to set the Map my Walk Ap on the phone so I could see where I’d gone on the map and how far.  

41 Forest Ave. 2013

I walked to 41 Forest from the center of the city.  It wasn’t far.  I’d like to think that in some ways I was tracing the steps my great-grandmother walked on her way to work.  As I crept up on Forest Ave. I wondered if time would have changed the street, but most of the houses in that section were from about 1860-1890.  They were older, but well maintained.  So I really wasn’t surprised that the house was still there.  As you can see in the picture, they added a porch and other additions to make it look bigger and it looks quite different, but it’s the same one.  

41 Forest Ave. @ 1909

After I ate my packed lunch of cold pizza (I was traveling frugal with a cooler in the trunk) I headed over to check out a rail trail I happened to spot on a map.  Imagine my joy when I discovered it was not only flat, but paved.  I strapped on my roller blades and spent about 30 minutes skating along what used to be the trolley line.  It was gorgeous!

The  Mill at Dover.

The view down Forest Ave.

I got to York, Maine by 2 in the afternoon.  It had been nearly a decade since Maine, but I’d been there over five times.  I drove past the ocean, just soaking it in before finding my way to Footbridge Beach.  Footbridge Beach is my favorite place.  There is a big parking lot and an easy walk to a large open beach that isn’t lost at high tide.  I hung out there for several hours before checking in at my hotel.  Then I headed to York to wander around the silly shops.  I ended the day on the beach while eating my fish taco. (I have a thing for fish tacos….it’s borderline obsessive).

 

My sunset view

This is a real picture of Nubble Lighthouse.
 It was dusk and this photo looks like the whole thing is a miniature doll house.

The rocky beach at Wells, ME.

The next day threatened rain (the previous days were so summer perfect you think that we custom ordered them), but it didn’t.  I went to Wells Beach for old times sake, and it didn’t disappoint.  I sat in my chair and drank a morning coffee while watching the waves.  Then I eventually went rock hunting.  I gathered a few good ones for the garden.  I got some at Kelly’s too.  I love having a little piece of the trip to see every day. 

On the way home I stopped at Kittery Outlets, something I’d never done before.  I needed new sneakers and found they had a Saucony outlet, so that was easily done.  Then I continued down Route 1 to Portsmouth and found Cool Jewels.  I have several funky necklace piece from there.  This time, I found earrings and a wall hanging.  Then the trip was done [cue the sad sobs] and I had to drive the tedious three hours back across the Mass Pike to Albany.

I think it kinda looks like a bear.

What did I gather from the trip?  A sense of love and family among my friends, peace from the ocean’s waves, and connection with the ancestors.  

Atlantic Ocean @ York, ME

Life is Good!

Peach Fest 2013

“Millions of Peaches, Peaches for free…..”  This was a song from the mid-1990’s!  Why these guys sang about peaches perplexes me to this day.  The peach is definitely a sexualized fruit, so I’m not sure if the singer was overwhelmed by the fruit or women!

I, on the otherhand, was most definitely overwhelmed by the fruit.  My 5 year old peach tree came into maturity in the middle of August.  It was late this year, as where the peaches at her parent orchard, Fix Bros. (south of Hudson, NY).  However, late or not, once the peaches are mature, it’s a speed race to pick them and prepare them.  I call it peach fest! And yeh, if you know me, you know that I'm a little obsessive about the tree and the fruit.  I'd wanted a peach tree since I was a little kid, but we never had luck growing one at my parents' house.  So, what can I say, I'm living the dream!

Peach Fest 2013 officially started Thursday, August 15.  Mom came for a visit and we picked from the tree in my yard.  There must have been 20 pounds easily that day.  Mom said, “you really think you need to go to Fix Bros?  You’ll have plenty from your tree.”  I was aghast.  Of course we had to pick at the orchard.  I was making jam!

We went to Fix Bros on Friday and tried to not get too many, but the trees are low to the ground and the peaches are enormous, and it’s just too easy.  We ended up with 45 pounds of the beauties.   It took less than ½ an hour to get the job done. 

Enter peach madness.  I spent the next several days sorting and culling the peaches from my tree.  There was probably 20 more pounds coming from her alone.  Once the peach is ripe I boil them until their skins pop off.  They retain an incredible amount of heat!  I lost a little feeling in my fingers peeling so many hot ones. 

I made a pie, a crisp, ice cream…..I froze 17 containers from my own tree.  As I write this, I need to boil up some of the remaining Fix peaches to freeze.  I also made 27 jars of jam!  It’s not quite over, but it’s dying down.  What fun.  Peach Fest 2013.  

The pictures sometimes tell the story better:

Point of reference.  Me and the tree after planting in 2008.

2013.  That's a 4 foot ladder under the tree.

Sorting the ones from my tree.

Green to go!  The sorting process! 

Hot peeling pain!

Wait!  There's MORE??!?!!

Yeh, 45 pounds more from Fix Bros.

Better make something and eat them daily!

Peach ice cream!

Peaches over angel food cake!

Jam!

New Canning Pot

Prepped jars await.

The process.

Just some of the frozen.

25 jars of joy.

What's left!

Incredibly Easy Tofu Salad

This is such an easy and basic cold salad, the marinade really makes it work.

Tofu Salad

Ingredients:

One container Extra Firm Tofu
1/2 cup sundried tomatoes
1 pint fresh grape tomatoes
1 cup green peas
2 cups cooked rice or quinoa
Speidie sauce or vinegar type marinade
Coconut oil for frying

1.  Cut tofu into smaller slabs and place over a paper towel to drain excess moisture
2.  Place into a dish and cover with marinade.  Allow to sit several hours to soak in the flavor.
3.  After the tofu is marinated, cut into cubes and fry in coconut oil until browned.
4. While the tofu is cooking, prepare the rice or quinoa.
5. Defrost frozen peas, chop up fresh tomatoes, and cook sundried tomatoes for 2-4 minutes in water in the microwave to soften them.
6.  When everything is done, combine into salad.
7.  Chill and enjoy!

Fry the marinated tofu in coconut oil

Add fresh tomatoes to cooked rice or quinoa.

Add thawed peas and softened sundried tomatoes

Add a little balsamic vinaigrette to the end product if you'd like.
Otherwise....ENJOY!

Being 43

As a teacher of 11-12 year olds I always try to be mindful of the year they were born and what was happening in the world at that time.  This year’s group was born in 2001 or 2002.  They don’t remember a time before Columbine and 9-11.  Their first president was George Bush.  People have always had cell phones….etc……  So I was thinking about my own time frame.  Now this might be a boring read to those not my age, but if you’re somewhere around 40 years old, I hope you can appreciate it. [Disclaimer:  I am American, so this is from an American-centric point of view.  It is also based on my experience and contains my opinions.  Still, I hope it speaks to you somehow.]

To be 43:

To be 43 is to be born in 1970.

·         Nixon was president, there was a war in Vietnam, but you don’t remember either

·         Men had landed on the moon the summer before you were born

·         Two years before that...the dream ended and Martin Luther King was killed

·         In pop culture, the Beatles were  no longer a group

·         There was Laugh-In, from time to time now people recall it and you smile, but you never saw it live. 

·         You never saw the Brady Bunch or Bewitched live either, but you liked the reruns.

·         Because to be 43 means you grew up with a black and white TV and 4 channels. No DVR, no VCR, just reruns. 

·         You watched it live or not at all.  Cartoons, better tune in on Saturday morning.

·         When you’re 43, you are familiar with the “land shark” of SNL, and more likely to remember “Hans and Franz’s :  “We’ll pump you up,”  and the church lady than John Belushi.

·         Because Belushi died just as you were entering your teen years.  And Lennon died then too.  You remember, this was a time you started to pay attention.

·         At 43, you remember political things like the Iranian Hostage Crisis, you do not remember the Bay of Pigs, that stuff is history just as your first hand experience is history to someone younger.

·         No one had a cell phone, but there were “car phones” that you never saw except in a movie.  Some people had VCR’s.  And video games…

·         You had Pong in the 70’s and the Atari 2600 when you were 12. 

·         And you remember when MTV was born!

·         And they played music videos and the exposure to pop culture exploded:

·         43 means you might have worn leg warmers, boingers, Madonna inspired jewelry, florescent clothing, roach clips with feathers dangling off them and of course, the off the shoulder Flash Dance look.

·         At 43 there may have been a time when you wished you were:  Laura Ingalls, Wonder Woman, Daisy Duke, Baby, or Molly Ringwald…or maybe you wanted to be as cool as them, or as trendy.

·         And you remember where you were, not when Kennedy was shot, but when the Challenger exploded.  In 1986.  I heard about it while walking in the hallway by the chemistry room. 

·         It’s likely you never believed there’d be a nuclear war.  But felt some worry when 3 Mile Island had a leak and later with Chernobyl.

·         It was your generation:  “Generation X” that saw The Berlin Wall fall, Glasnost, the end of the Soviet Bloc, the massive change to Europe.

·         You went from “Free Nelson Mandela” to seeing the man become the president of a nation you never thought would escape apartheid.

·         Clinton became president and it seemed that anything was possible.

·         You survived Y2K and learned to say Twenty-Ten, (well no, you planned on saying it that way since you were a little kid).

·         And that debate you used to have, who will the US elect first:  a woman or a black man?  That got answered.  When you stopped everything in the middle of the morning to watch the Inauguration, you may have cried a little with joy….or maybe not.

·         Sadly, when you are 43 you remember a time when people were more free.  There was the ERA and women felt the time had come to go out and take what was theirs.  They used birth control and planned families and had careers and some never even changed their names.  You remember when society wasn’t quick to go to court and sue, when people took personal responsibility…and with that came a freedom.  The freedom to make mistakes and be forgiven.  Children could play and even work some and learn from their mistakes and slowly gain responsibility, all while no one would be sued if someone got hurt.

And there is so much more, but I thought I’d stop the list around the turn of the century.  So much has happened since my newest group of students were born.  So many new memories for them to build, but that will be their story and their list to make, someday, when they are 43.

Some notable events of your coming of age years in the 70’s and 80’s (and you thought these things were always around)!!!

1970

Aswan High Dam Completed

Beatles Break Up

Computer Floppy Disks Introduced

1971

VCRs Introduced

1972

Pocket Calculators Introduced  

Terrorists Attack at the Olympic Games in Munich

Watergate Scandal Begins

1973

Roe vs Wade Legalizes Abortion in the U.S.

Sears Tower Built

U.S. Pulls Out of Vietnam

1974

Halie Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, Deposed

Mikhail Baryshnikov Defects

Patty Hearst Kidnapped

Terracotta Army Discovered in China

U.S. President Nixon Resigns

1975

Microsoft Founded

1977

Elvis Found Dead

Star Wars Movie Released

1978

First Test-Tube Baby Born

John Paul II Becomes Pope

Jonestown Massacre (and you know what “drinking the Koolaid means)

1979

Ayatollah Khomeini Returns as Leader of Iran

Iran Takes American Hostages in Tehran

Margaret Thatcher First Woman Prime Minister of Great Britain

Mother Teresa Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

Nuclear Accident at Three Mile Island

Sony Introduces the Walkman

1980

John Lennon Assassinated

Mount St. Helens Erupts

Pac-Man Video Game Released

Rubik's Cube Becomes Popular

1981

Millions Watch Royal Wedding on T.V.

New Plague Identified as AIDS

Personal Computers (PC) Introduced by IBM

1983

Sally Ride Becomes the First American Woman in Space

1984

PG-13 Movie Rating Created

1985

Mikhail Gorbachev Calls for Glasnost and Perestroika

Space Shuttle Challenger Explodes

Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster

Live Aid

1988

You graduate High School

1989

Berlin Wall Falls

Exxon Valdez Spills Millions of Gallons of Oil on Coastline

Students Massacred in China's Tiananmen Square

My current students will not have been born in the same century as me!  And that’s why, sometimes at 43, you feel a little old!  

The years of our lives are like the months of the year......

Dawn, August 1, 2013

If months were the decades of our lives, August would be our 40’s. The 40’s comfortable practiced, bloated.  August, a bit tired, hot and the end.  The end of the summer day, the beginning of the turning leaves.  August leaves me melancholy.  Leaves me thinking about what has already passed:  did I waste my time?  Did I squander those precious moments of summer whether they were work days or not? And what of life?  Did I waste my youth?  My 20’s or 30’s?  Heck, aren’t I still 35?  How did I wake up one morning eight years older? 

If August is our 40’s, then certainly we can see it this way:

March and April are birth and youth.  May, the first flower of summer is the time that we are teens.  June, when summer officially arrives and peaks is our 20’s.  July, the days grow shorter, but each day is one of bright sun and skies, the possibilities are endless.  This is our 30’s.  August, the month of the dying day.  Nature understands….no longer do the birds wake at 3:30 and when they do greet the dawn, it is not the song of the robin you hear, it’s a mockingbird or bluejay.  The robins will still appear, but their time has passed.

September is still summer, but it changes to fall, just as our 50’s starts fresh, strong, healthy, and fades as we near 60.  The nights are cool, the leaves will turn, the birds will leave for the south.  The last harvest occurs…..the last chance to produce.

October is a beautiful month when the leaves turn and the days are bright and sunny.  We are used to the autumn now just as a person in their 60’s has the comfort of what they learned in their 50’s.  But November is more difficult.  Tired, grey, cold, at times snow.  The green is turning brown, the leaves have left the trees.  At times a vibrant reminder of life peaks out….a late summer apple is found, a bright red cardinal streaks across the sky.  A warm breeze blows. This is our 70’s.

Like winter, the time given is short, days are filled with resting.  The earth rests, we rest.  Winter is the time of our 80’s and beyond until our rebirth.  Just like nature, we live in a cycle.  There is always hope.  The solstice brings the turn towards more sunlight…..spring is coming!  Everything will awaken over again.

What is my point?  It’s awfully sad to sit here on the first day of August lamenting the end of summer when that end is still 7 weeks away.  So maybe that is my point.  Yes, August sometimes reminds me that May, June and July have already passed.  That summer is on the downward slide.  But it’s not over yet!!!!  Just as being 43 does not signal the end of the time that I am at my best. 

There is something beautiful to be found in every season.  There is something beautiful to be found at every age.  If we spend too much time thinking about “then” (past or future) we are not thinking about now.  We are not engaged in that beautiful moment.  Something woke me this morning at 5 AM.  The sky was growing light; so instead of turning over and going back to sleep, I got out of bed and went outside.  It was true dawn, not quite full daylight, peaceful, cool, but warm enough to stand in my nightgown.  Across the street in the mulberry, the mockingbird was singing his own song.  A sliver of moon stood out in the blue above me, far away, a jet streaked across the sky.

The lyrics of a well-loved song come to mind:

I dig my toes into the sand

The ocean looks like a thousand diamonds

Strewn across a blue blanket

I lean against the wind

Pretend that I am weightless

And in this moment I am happy, happy

•  INCUBUS - WISH YOU WERE HERE

I had planned to write this post already.  My early morning inspiration was perfectly timed.  

Today is August 1, 2013.  

This day will never happen again.  

Enjoy it!

Owning A House is Not for the Faint of Heart

Although they are fairly self sufficient, house do need some up keep.  And at 8 years in my home I am coming to see this.  I wish I’d been a little smarter and planned ahead better, but it’s comfortable having your head stuck in the sand, until there’s a leak or two.  So now that I’ve been dealing with a leaking basement, a back porch room that hit its expiration date over 5 years ago, and another roof leak (time for a new roof) I have to face all these things.  And it kinda sucks. 

Sometimes, when left to the pity party I think, wouldn’t it be nice to just rent?  So I just went exploring online.  Well, that was eye opening!  One bedroom apartments are easily $900!  Some two bedrooms are $1,100 to $1,300….ummm…not worth it at all! So now I remember why my dad always reminded me that owning a house is a wise investment.  At least in this area.

So then I looked at houses for sale.  I hadn’t done that in ages.  Let’s just say “the grass is greener” is the expression that came to mind.  Sure there were houses in the same price range as my current house, but they were also probably in the same condition as my house.  So trade one for another.

Eye opening. 

None of this is easy, is it?  Sometimes, I want a reset to 23.  Oh if I only could tell my younger self all that I had learned.  Will my 63 year old self say these same words? What can I do right now that will make my future more secure? 

But there is no reset button, there is only now.

In a strangely cosmic and spiritual way, I think a house needs to be lived in and it needs to be loved.  How often have you seen an empty house succumb to the elements?  In no time the opportunistic trees and weeds begin to grow near the foundation practically swallowing the place.  Structural weakness begins to happen and the house begins to slowly deteriorate in ways it would not have if occupied. 

My wake up call from a few weeks ago has set me on a path of care for the house and plans financially that I simply had let myself forget.  I feel so much better than that now.  And the universe responded.  Recently, I met the grandson of the original owners.  He offered me pictures of the house when it was first built!  On the same day, my co-worker stopped by and said she’d been thinking about my house and its architectural style.  She said she liked the house.  It was as if all these positive affirmations were coming to me to remind me of the house I fell in love with in 2005.

Owning a house is not for the faint of heart.  So many people rent or get maintenance free condos just to avoid the hassles of owning and repair.  So many people get into debt over their heads because they had to buy new construction because they are afraid of an old home.  Yet, these new houses tend to not be built as well and then the people are still putting money into them to maintain them. 

I know that houses are just things and attachment is bad, but I love my house.  I love that she was built by a carpenter and his brother nine years after the owner had purchased the land.  I love that high quality materials were used and the most modern skills for that time were utilized.  She has original woodwork, windows, and interior doors.  I try to decorate her somewhat in the fashion that fits her.  This house is my home, and if I will be here for a while, I will love her and care for her! 

What would you lose? What would you miss?

I’ve been meaning to address this topic for a few weeks.  As you read this blog you must realize I have an obsession with organization and decluttering.  If I really think about why, then I have to say it is about simplicity.  I think that if your physical space is uncluttered then it frees the entirety of your life from being consumed by stuff.  And that’s all it ever is….stuff.  I think the other part of this is that I think it is a bit Buddhist to want to let go of attachments.  Stuff, and clutter, and consumption….all attachments.

And what really matters?

At the beginning of July, New York had very heavy rain.  The Mohawk Valley saw flooding that was unlike anything anyone could remember.  In fact, once meteorologists researched, it was discovered that this level of rain and destructive flooding had not happened in over a century.  No wonder it could not be recalled.

Several towns and villages had water everywhere.  Entire streets became streams.  And it wasn’t clean water, it was mud.  Mud was everywhere and in everything, and with the mud came bacteria and god knows what from the sewer drains-drains that could not take the deluge. 

Of course, being central NY, it couldn’t just happen once, it happened a few days later.  So people, who already lived in poverty, found their houses attacked again.  Just when they thought they might be able to save their homes…perhaps they could not.

People lost everything in their basements:  furnaces, hot water heaters, washers, dryers, and anything they stored.  Some people had their sheds washed away, just gone.  Many had total water damage to their cars.  Insurance doesn’t cover floods.  The state stepped in and offered some assistance, the federal government said no, it wasn’t a big enough problem.  Well, it was to those who lost things.

Those are the roofs of cars in a parking lot!

They lost things, and while things are not as important as life itself, not having a home, or the means to rebuild one is a pretty traumatizing experience.  It’s been a few weeks now and I just drove through part of that area last Sunday.  You can see a lot of dust and dirt on the sides of the road, but all the businesses along the highway were open and fine.  There were quite a few dumpsters out that were likely there to deal with the extra messes.  It looks like people are recovering. 

When I think about all that was endured I go back to the idea of decluttering and minimalism.  What would I lose?  What would I miss.  First off, let me disclaimer by saying this is about me and my needs.  What is important to me is not what is necessarily important to someone else.  My hypothetical losses can’t compare to the actual loss people suffered.  What we value and prioritize is individual.

Yes, for me, it’s all stuff, but there is some level of attachment.  I think my main worry would be my three cats.  I would have to protect them if I could and get them to safety.  Then, what would I lose?  I’d lose my gardens, and I’d miss them.  Silly thing to say, but I really like the work I’ve accomplished with the Japanese garden.  And then there is Peachy.  She sits at the head of the garden watching.  I’d hate to lose her.  I’d lose nothing of sentimental value because I really have made it so that there is no attachment to the items.  Plus, my photos are scanned and on Flickr.  (Photos tend to be the number one item people talk about).  Things, even that favorite pair of shoes, can be replaced. 

So, having seen that people can have lives changed by natural disasters they never expected, my thoughts go out to them and their losses.  I hope time heals, that the government gives them aid, that their families give them shelter.  Maybe they will have something positive from it, perhaps their furnace was dying anyways and needed replacement.  Maybe their flooded basement needed cleaning, and now it will be new again.  I wish them the best, and that they find a silver lining to their big, black cloud.