Hopefull Hearts

It's April now and we have left Santa Barbara and come to Goodyear, Arizona. The tiny house build in the storm is "mostly" done and the storm in our nation has not yet finished it's course. We however remain in "Hope" not because of what we see but because of who we know, we know that storms will pass over time and that what will become important in the future is how we went through and how we rebuild. We said goodbye to old friends and new friends, both of whom have become family and hold large pieces of our hearts. We plan to return and pick up where we left off and while we look forward to that  day we carry the memories with us of all we shared in this last season. These memories include Christmas parties  many shared meals, laughs, tears, dreams, prayers, walks taken in beautiful places with conversations that heal.  We discovered that building, whether large tiny homes or small bird feeders with 6 year olds, actually carry much more in the process than...

  While we have been planted in Santa Barbara there's been a storm raging throughout our nation. People have been anxious, tempers have flared and hopelessness has set in for some. During this tumult Bing has been building a house with our friend Noah, a first born son of 7 who wanted to set up his own dwelling within the community he lives in. Yes there are parallels to the well known story of Noah in the Bible. Times were crazy in his day and he set out to build the structure that would take him into his promise. The definition of the word "ark" is of course a boat, but also a "sacred chest". In this case this "sacred chest" is like that which contains all that we value, love, connection, shared history and yes, hope for the future. In building this "ark" Noah and Bing are saying, something better is coming and I'm going to be a part of it. As this dwelling has gone up, a lot of the people in the community come and see the progress, the...

 I think I mentioned before that leaving is hard, saying goodbye is hard, I like to say instead "see you later" so much better than goodbye. As we leave Lompoc after 7 weeks with our friends we go with full hearts. We had no idea when we arrived that we would be here for this long nor did we know just how much our lives would be enriched by the experiences we shared. In the course of the 7 weeks we spent here we had the joy of seeing the baptism of Leah and share in the joy of hearing Dave say like the Father over his son on that day, this is my daughter. We sang, we prayed we rejoiced along with Dave and Laurie over this special event. We also got to share in the celebratory Tritip BBQ afterwards created by Dave's son Rodney. You can't come to Lompoc without Tritip in your life at some point. We shared dinners and took turns creating our favorite dishes and developed a bad habit of eating ice cream every night. Bing and I tried to spend time every day walking off thi...

  There are places in life that hold our hearts, places that when we return we find ourselves, the part we left. We pick right up, the remembering, the joy we felt while we were there and remember also the tears we shed. The pieces of our heart are still there.  This is such a place, this camp in the hills of Santa Barbara, California. My journey in this area began long ago before I knew about this turn on Stagecoach Rd. It began when I was 10 and watching my stepfather Bill, an ironworker put in the last connection to the bridge that would bring the people from Santa Barbara over the valley and onto the road to Santa Ynez. They would bypass this spot unless they were looking.  We were looking and we found this place, this place holds many memories for our family. I started working in the kitchen in 1991, both my sons worked summers here and swam, dived and explored all the trails here. Bing and I moved here in 1996 to work full time and became part of a family, the Ryan'...

  I believe the answer to this question is Yes, animals do go to heaven and I believe they are there waiting for us. Here on earth we have these wonderful furry friends in our lives who bring us so much joy and comfort and when we observe them they teach us wonderful lessons in love, loyalty and forgiveness. This is Maude, she is a guardian angel dog, she makes sure everyone is ok and where they are supposed to be. She is acutely aware of how her humans are doing as well as any other furry creatures that belong to her "pack". Her eyes penetrate your soul when she looks at you and you can almost feel the question, "how are you really?" When Paulie the companion of Laurie's mom, Barbara, dug her way out of the backyard and escaped into the wild world of the suburban expanse, Maude was on the case. She led the wandering and very frightened girl safely back. Barbara had been taken to the hospital and Paulie found herself in unfamiliar territory. Here she is safe fro...

 We've made it to our first intentional destination, the driveway of our friends Dave and Laurie. In 2021 they will celebrate their 30 year anniversary, we were in/at that wedding. The theme was Household of Faith, I sang (nervously) the song of the same title as two families became one. Two kids became four and their household became full, not only of faith, but of life, love, joy and the activity of a neighborhood teaming with teenagers inventing games that scaled the neighborhood and city hall across the street. We're on our journey, we have shared this journey, our lives with these right here and we are going to pause right here and stay planted for awhile. We will make new memories and remember the stories not only of our shared past, but also the stories we have lived while being apart. These stories are rich and include our son's and daughters who are busy living theirs with grandkids who now fill their houses with laughter and made up games. This is Laurie's mom...

 We all have stories that make us who we are, part of this journey we are on is gathering these stories from people we've never met and from people we have known. We met this couple at a hot springs in Burns, Oregon, Crystal Crane Hot Springs. They have a story, they built this teardrop trailer in 3 weeks while working on his family's river guide business in Utah. He is a graduate with a business degree and she is finishing college in Seattle earning a Master's degree in nutrition. She hopes to start a vlog about keeping healthy while living the new Nomadic Lifestyle on the road. They are very adventurous and since college is being done online these days why not finish your degree in the great expanse of the United States of America? They represent the new story, this next couple represents not just the past story or the "old" story but really as we came to find out, the continuing story. This is Chuck and Debbie, they have been part of our past story when we live...