We have been nesting the last few weeks.
After almost two years in our house, we finally settled on some bigger projects to help make the house more “us”. Like everywhere it seems, it took some time to find the right tradespeople to do the work. We waited several months for them to fit us in their schedule, and of course, everyone showed up the same week. Now, except for the garden, it’s all done.
A small door opening to the back garden has been replaced with wide glass french doors. These doors open out onto a new broad deck the width of the house. There were formerly three wobbly narrow steps down from the single door to a worn concrete sloping ‘patio’. It was difficult to navigate from the house to the garden. Now the inside and out spaces flow together with a sense of connection and the inside is filled with bright garden light. We love it!
Just as importantly, from the inside we watch the wood pigeons land on the bird bath, tentatively sip from the edge, and then throw themselves clumsily into the water whilst flapping their wings and splashing all the water out of their bath. We also watch the neighbourhood cats stretch out in the sun on the roof of our Summer house, and I chase them away when they stalk small birds. (I wish they could be trained to chase the screeching gulls…). We also discovered that we could turn a small TV around to face the deck, arrange our outside chairs to face into the house, and watch the Olympics whilst sitting outside during the warm evenings.
We’ve also had a bathroom redone which, except for the inconvenience of being without a shower for 10 days, did not create anything particularly fancy but did eliminate many irritating features and has made our daily life much more pleasurable.
These small changes have helped us claim our home, making it more suitable to live the way we like to live. Because we are away for long periods of time several times a year, for awhile our house felt like just somewhere else we stay, and we didn’t really feel at home in our own space. Making these small revisions take us another step towards feeling like we belong here.
These activities have also been a distraction, like the Olympics, from everything else going on in the world. Instead of focusing on election drama, simmering and outright wars, right-wing riots, governments collapsing or being overturned, economic swings and other sorts of misery, we are blithely thinking about towel colours and what type of parasol will protect us from rain and sun when we are sitting outside. It is incredibly indulgent and privileged to be able to turn away from these horrible situations for hours and days at a time. Unlike the unfortunate people living in conflict areas who have no choice to think about anything else, I can go about my day to day life, la-la-la, with minimal thought about the rest of the world.
A few times a day I tune into the rest of the world, and spend that time worrying and fretting. I don’t have any solutions, the power or even the capacity to help those global situations improve. I end up morose and frustrated.
So as the world spins around each day here on my little Island, I am reminded of the last few lines of a quotation by William Saroyan:
“In the time of your life, live—so that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite delight and mystery of it.”
What wonderful words! Smiling with delight is exactly when I feel the most alive.
This morning I heard about a recent trip to the U.S. from an English friend. He commented on hearing the national anthem being played before the various events he attended. He found it to be a surprisingly serious experience, and very ceremonial when the rowdy crowd settles and gets quiet, the singer is named, and often veterans or other dignitaries are honoured. He said it was moving for him to witness. It brought me to tears hearing the very specific details which had made such an impression on him. I remembered so very many ceremonies in my life that began with the national anthem—all US sporting events begin there.
And I remembered the Friday night high school football (US) game when my daughter and three others from the choir sang an acapella version of the national anthem before the game, which also brought me to tears. (At that time of course, and also when I just remembered; honestly, it doesn’t take much to set off my joyful tears).
Maybe it is hearing all the national anthems during the Olympics the past two weeks, and seeing the immense pride and joy on the face of every single athlete. Maybe it is recalling that sense of joining with a large group for a few moments to sing together before a competition begins. I don’t know. Maybe that is part of the mystery; certainly it is always a delight. 💜
I’d love to hear about your moments of delight and mystery! What provides those moments for you? Have you done any house projects and have they gone well? Have they helped you feel more ‘at home’? What else do you do to feel more at home in your home?
Thanks for being here this week! The next few weeks are going to be a bit higgledy -piggledy, travel-wise, so I will try to post every Thursday, but if you don’t see me, know I’ll be back the following week in some form or another.
Wishing you a lovely August, meantime!
xoxo Sabrina
If you know anyone who might like to read these posts, feel free to send this one their way. Just click this button here:
And if you aren’t subscribing already, here’s the button for doing that (it’s free!):
If you liked reading this, feel free to click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack 🙏
What a beautiful quote, thank you for sharing that! I think it's a well-timed reminder for us all. And a lovely post too. So glad you are nesting nicely in, it's a big part of the process of finding where home is. I had a lovely time with your Andrea on Wednesday, we are planning to get you over to Spain for a writing retreat, you've been warned! :-p
I love the nest feathering and time spent quietly at home sheltered from the turbulent, uncertain world (me too). I too am prone to emotion when any one in my family sings or performs, though I am not much invested in the national anthem. Or the flag. But I love America!