Listening To What Life Tells You
I spent all day Saturday cleaning our basement - packing, organizing and separating the trash from the donation pile. During that time my husband was upstairs putting crown molding and trying to install a new bathroom sink. We really know how to live it up around here on the weekends. This week my to-do list includes painting and more painting.
All this work is in preparation for moving to a new home in a few months. That’s right, we have found a place just outside the city and not very far from our work. It isn’t exactly where we thought we’d end up, but something about it makes us feel at home.
What I love about this new house most is the location. There is nothing down the road. Just a few homes on our street and hardly any traffic. This means the only sounds we will hear are crickets and toads at night. It will take some time to get used to, but I feel like I’ve spent the last 3 years in tune with the noises that city-life brings. Mostly the sirens that travel out street and the helicopters that fly over our house several times a day. Each time I hear those sounds my world stops and I relive a moment in my life that doesn’t seem to ever fully disappear.
I know moving away will not make it go away, but it will give me more than a few hours at a time where I forget. Maybe if I forget for long enough, the next time I hear a firetruck my mind won’t automatically take me to that place where my life and time stood still.
One of the things I painted today was Ethan’s closet door. Nate had stenciled a growth chart on there before he was born and every so often we’d measure him, and write it on the door. Obviously, whoever buys our house will probably not care to have our scribblings on their closet door, so we decided to paint over it now.
I had to take pictures before I did that of course. What I noticed was that the day before the car accident (7-8-04) that caused all these anxieties, we measured Ethan at just under 3 feet tall. Last night (3-24-08) when we had him stand up to the closet door for the last time he was just over 4 feet.
What makes my heart stop is wondering what would have happened if 3 feet was all I got to know of him. When I think of what has occurred between those dates I realize that hearing a daily reminder of why I’m here isn’t as bad as it truly sounds.
[…] Alone So, we have another kiddo sick. At my work, we have received all this lwww.greeblemonkey.comListening To What Life Tells You I spent all day Saturday cleaning our basement - packing, organizing and separating the trash from […]
Oh well said. A very poignant post. (As a funny aside, the first house My Better Half I shared had a fish pond beneath the Master Bedroom window. Each night the frogs would kick up the craziest mating sounds. We actually had to move because I couldn’t sleep at all. Sometimes country sounds are worse than those of the city.)
I’m glad you found a house. Have you made an offer on it? Such a happy/sad post. Makes you stop and think. God is good
Wonderful post, reminds us to hang on to the important things and be thankful for each day we receive.
I remember after 9-11 that every time I heard a plane fly overhead, I would pull the covers over my head and ball. And I wasn’t even there, it didn’t affect me personally, just emotionally. I can’t imagine what those daily reminders must be like for you.
Good luck with the move. I went back and read the links from this post and it sounds like a change of scenery and a quieter place will be a good thing. Wow - what a trauma you went through (and probably still are going through).
Good luck and congrats on the new house!
Thank GOD that you are getting to know every inch.
it can all go away so fast. good on you for appreciating that foot.
This is an amazing post.
So glad you are all okay.
fantastic! a new home!
This choked me right up. So poignant, and so true for any of us who’ve had that heartstoppingly close moment in whatever way.
Just a beautiful and honest post.