Heading out on your own involves a little mystery until you find you place in the world. People used to join a company and the company had a lot to with their life and where they lived it. That doesn’t happen so much anymore.
Our life wasn’t a structured one. I got out of college, felt lucky to not be fighting a war in a jungle and equally lucky to have missed the law boards. I went back to the land in Nova Scotia. Life was remodeling a two-hundred year old post and beam house, gardening, and taking care of a few cows until I figured out what to do with my life.
That house and others that followed provided safe haven from not just the weather but from a lot of life’s challenges. We built our lives around our houses. The people we met were nearby and because of the nature of the jobs that I held, I always had an office in the house.
In seventies and early eighties when we lived on the farm, local neighbors, also tied to the land, would drop by to build relationships and strengthen that web of friendship that keeps farming communities running.
After we moved off the farm to Halifax, Nova Scotia, then Columbia, Maryland and eventually to Roanoke, Virginia, visitors were often those with children of the same age. Only for a few short months did we live where we could attend a company holiday party.
Life revolved a round our homes, church, and schools.Our Roanoke home at the top of post was high on the side of the foothills of a mountain. It was safe have from the winds that often buffeted the mountainside and reminded us of our Nova Scotia years. It was big enough to get lost in and to collect far too many family treasures as our parents passed away, The office I had there was larger than the one I commuted to as Apple director. As the kids moved away the house became too big for the two of us.
We moved to a smaller house on the North Carolina coast. It anchored us once again. We found friends and a church with more friends. Once again I had an office in the home. Our coastal home kept us safe from a number of hurricanes and plenty of high water.
After fifteen years there, we decided to move on again. Each move after Roanoke took us to a
smaller home but every time the home anchored us in life. This last move to the Piedmont which by my counting is our sixth and might truly be our last. This has turned out to be a good home, one where we are comfortable in our surroundings and well-anchored in life.
At a time of rising seas, it is good to perched on a ridge at 785 feet instead of just six feet above sea level in marsh. Even though I loved every moment of living in the marsh, I have found plenty to love here in the Piedmont.
Comments