Starting in
Posted on | January 20, 2006 |
The Pleiades were rising above our house when we came up the long drive after dusk. The night air was cold and dark. Our house. Such a different feeling than the house we owned in Connecticut, in a jam-packed neighborhood with dogs yapping right next door, and dog poop in our flower beds. Here, the wide expanse of sky spreads out above like the dome of some great church, huge and indigo in the starlight. Here, the silence tucks itself around the corners of the house, wind rushing between the tall poplars and maples on the hill.
We began the process of removing the outdated cabinets, circa the 1970s, and were reminded again (we renovated our last house too) that every project takes twice as long. They used nails with screw-points to install the cabinets, leaving us no way to take them down gracefully. There we were, three of us with crow bars, trying to let our minds slip back in time to imagine what the workmen had thought of, nearly thirty years before. Like a puzzle, each cabinet connected to the next.
Tomorrow we’ll go back with better tools and leather gloves. Tomorrow maybe it will sink in: months of work before the place is home. But tonight in the driveway before piling into the car an hour before midnight, I couldn’t help but twirl a couple of times under the stars, my arms out-stretched. Across the valley the nearly full wedge of a waning moon was rising, like a white teacup, against the tablecloth of night.
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14 Responses to “Starting in”
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January 20th, 2006 @ 2:26 am
Welcome home where twirling is always allowed, even if it’s cheesy!
January 20th, 2006 @ 4:25 am
I love the image of you twirling under the stars. Welcome home! (and your piece in Indigo Leaf was fantastic!)
January 20th, 2006 @ 8:21 am
Congratulations on fulfilling a dream. Your enthusiasm is contagious! As Dorthy said, “There’s no place like home.”
January 20th, 2006 @ 9:27 am
What a wonderful way to think about tearing down cabinets: “Like a puzzle, each cabinet connected to the next.”
Congratulations on your new home; it’s beautiful.
January 20th, 2006 @ 10:49 am
Good lord Christina. You always have a way of stirring up these hidden desires in me. Once in a while I think about moving elsewhere…some place where I would be happier, and then I come here and see you doing that very thing. Not only doing it, but doing it gracefully. Gently peeling away parts of a house so that your own personalities reign free, twirling under star filled skies.
I believe what I’m feeling is envy.
(but not in the, ‘i must harm her’ kind of way…more in the ‘lucky lucky gal, i must learn how to make my own dreams come true’ kind of way).
January 20th, 2006 @ 11:49 am
That last sentence is so beautiful it takes my breath away. Your new home is just…I’ll say it again, beautiful.
And twirling? Is the best way to celebrate. Twirl, baby, twirl!
January 20th, 2006 @ 1:05 pm
excellent! twirl girl twirl!
January 20th, 2006 @ 1:14 pm
*twirling*
Oh how utterly lovely and wonderful and HOMEY!!!!!!!
January 20th, 2006 @ 2:55 pm
I love the picture, it is haunting, and the last sentence is beautiful too. I love your blog!
January 20th, 2006 @ 10:38 pm
Congradulations Christina, your new home is beautiful and the location looks relaxing and peaceful-soon little Bean will be joining you for some nite time twirls…Glad your home.
January 21st, 2006 @ 1:09 am
Congratulations on your home … where you can make as much noise as you want!
January 21st, 2006 @ 9:26 am
Soon you will be twirling and living in your new home, not just twirling and visiting!
Congratulations.
January 21st, 2006 @ 9:57 pm
Ahhh, twirling. And what an absolutely gorgeous picture. Every day, your art never fails to inspires me.
March 13th, 2006 @ 10:02 pm
WordPress blogs are of much higher quality but they are harder to find unfortunately. Thanks a lot anyways.