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Today, I mourn my mama on her birthday, and I celebrate what she has inspired in me.

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Tomorrow, I go back to work for the first time since my move. I imagine resuming a routine schedule will add an additional layer of “real”ness to this place where I have ended up. This place I now call “home.”

This house feels so new and old to me. I haven’t lived in a multi-story home since I lived with my mom and family, and it’s alarming but somewhat comforting to experience acoustic memories. The echos of doors closing on a different floor. Low rumbling conversations from the kitchen. Footfalls on staircases. Dog barks.

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I can barely remember the journey we took to get here. It’s all been a bit of a whirl. The house sold quickly. Much quicker than we expected, but still somehow perfectly timed. And then there was a road trip to Maine, via St. Louis, Chicago, Oberlin, Flemington…and a few other points in between.

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We went looking for a house and then we found a house. We lost that house and found another house, which we also lost, so we found another house, and in the midst of deciding about that house, the second house came back and that is the house we chose. The house that chose us. The house that circled back.

 

We headed back to Texas with fingers crossed, slowly packed the POD with the random crap we couldn’t bring ourselves to part with, including 2 cats and 1 dog (the other dog went, with the car, with the other (adult) child.)

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All of the states and places between Austin and this place in central Maine where we currently reside are a jumble in my memory. There was good food, and fun adventures. Wilbur, the Great Pyrenees, learned about elevators and mastered hotel rooms.

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We sadly lost one of our cats at the end of the journey. She disappeared inside the new house. We miss her. There is talk of future kitten(s).

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And chickens

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And the building of chicken coops

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And gardens

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(most of this talk is coming from me)

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But I didn’t want this to be a play-by-play. I just wanted to say…I am home. I am very satisfied. The right house wasn’t at all what I was expecting it to be, but now that we’ve been here a month, I know it is the Right House.

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It is the right place. And I am quietly and continually overjoyed.