After a multi-year construction project gone amok, producing a house that didn’t sell for a year (and then only at a large loss), Ed and I have again landed in our happy place.

We have moved to Portland, Oregon!!

It will take a while to process and assimilate the tumultuous and paradoxical events of the past three years. We experienced a potent mixture of joy, hope, anger, and fear, our dreams flaring up like a flame only to crash and die.

Through it all, we kept hold of each other’s hand, and through it all, we sensed the hand of a greater power, leading us onward, despite the uncertainties.

No feeling is final.

As you know, I like sharing relevant quotes that can inspire us. Here’s one from Rainer Maria Rilke from his Book of Hours: Love Poems to God, translated from German by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows. Read it aloud slowly, and let it touch you as it has touched me.

God speaks to each of us as he makes us,

then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are the words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall,

go to the limits of your longing.

Embody me.

Flare up like flame

and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.

Just keep going. No feeling is final.

Don’t let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life.

You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand.