When my friend messaged me about the terrible fire, I just stared at her words in shock and disbelief. Less than a month ago I was standing right there, marveling over the beauty that she had constructed on this northern Michigan homestead of hers. Now she was telling me that it had all burned to the ground. The greenhouse, the chicken coop–a true palace of a place!–the tool shed with her perfectly arranged, decades-in-the-making collection of tools, the pole barn. Gone. She was thanking God that the house had escaped, and that she had saved the cats and chickens.
She would send photos, she said, when her internet was restored.
When they came, the pictures stunned me more than her words had. I stared at this pile of rubble, trying somehow to put it all back where it was, so vivid and bright, in my mind.
Then the note she sent with the photos registered, explaining that orange bird feeder in the picture’s center. She had just built it , she said, with some of the few materials and tools that had been in the house, escaping the fire.
“Of course she did,” I said to myself. “Of course she did.”
“I figure you have to start somewhere,” she said.
I thought she chose a pretty cool place to make her start. Do what you love. Do what brings you satisfaction. Start here, with whatever you got. And give it all you got.
Then paint it some bright color. Write it in big letters or images in your heart: My New Start. Let it note a moment of triumph.
We’re such resilient beings! We rise from horrendous traumas and trials, determined to go on, regardless. We learn that we can claim the moment and make of it whatever we will. Ask yourself what you want to do, then listen for the answer and go build a bird feeder.
That’s how you go about starting somewhere.
May you do it with humor and grace!
Warmly,
Susan