A Home Well-Loved

After 26+ years, I will be leaving my beach apartment that has been home for all this time.

I am moving to Europe. My sister and I are completing our process for Italian Dual Citizenship, and my sister will return to the US (from Italy) after four months, once we have our Italian passports. I am staying on the continent to be an EU resident, and that is all I know at this moment.

Gratefully I do not have 26+ years’ worth of stuff in my home, but that doesn’t make the task of clearing it all less daunting, before I leave in a month’s time, with two suitcases. My prayer is that the process will be easy with lots of support around me, and that it will surprise me through joy.

Maybe my thought process so far will set the stage for that.

My dear friend Sandrina came over last Saturday to spend the afternoon with me. I prepared a yummy, casual, late lunch for us. As usual, we sat for hours at my dining room table, the one I’d inherited from my parents. It’s beautiful, the chairs are very comfy, and I love company at this table. Set elegantly with linens, some of my prettiest plates and glasses, and really delicious food, our table together made for such an idyllic afternoon.

Earlier I’d baked buckwheat-hazelnut-chocolate Madeleines. When I’d sifted through the box that holds several bags of varietal flours, I sighed. Imagining that I won’t use up all of these exquisite flours before I leave, it made me smile to know that up until now, I’d cooked and baked so many amazing breads, cookies, waffles, meals with those flours. I’d loved up my guests and myself extremely well in all the years I’d lived here, with things like those very flours !

In my pantry I sought out my exquisite sugars, vanilla beans, nuts ... in my fridge is only French butter ... Those Madeleines were so exemplary of how I’ve chosen to cook and bake since I began creating in that kitchen, all those years ago.

I’d shared with Sandrina that even during lean times – and there were several of those over this past duration – I still cooked and dined well. I remember making my own bread (still do) and treating myself to one slight slice of exquisite cheese. I’d make a pot of tea, and savor a bit of my cheese with toast and honey, and feel like a very rich girl.

In my bathroom are only a few - but to me, the very best – of soap, bath gel, and body lotions. Now I make my own herbal oils to use instead of lotions as well. Once during a very lean period, I was gifted with a cache of samples from a friend’s sister’s aromatherapy business. It kept me supplied with the sweetest bath products for a long while, and I was so grateful.

My bedroom and living room both look like a real minimalist lives here. I love order, I love space (I especially need it for my yoga studio), and I love calm and peace, which is what minimal settings inevitably offer me. My sofa is outfitted in the winter with the coziest of blankets, and in the summer with a really good fan very close by. Outside on my deck is a hammock (also with its own cozy blanket), which adds to my soothing feeling of haven.

In all of my reflection, I’ve decided that my home has been lived in well, and has also been a haven for loving well, including my own precious self-care. Lots of times guests have come for brunch and stayed til early evening. Sandrina rarely stays less than 4 or 5 hours. Renata and I fell mutually madly in love, here in this home. For many years I’ve welcomed guests from all over the world. I once even cooked a full-on meal for a French couple upon their arrival in the rain, at 1am.  

I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

I wonder what joy, awe, and wonder my next home will bring?

Oh la la, I can’t wait to find out.