Happiness

My husband and I own a farm. On our 16 acres are three houses. One we live in, and the other two were kept rented, to cover our mortgage and taxes. A couple of months ago we decided to see if we can survive without renting the little house. It's a two room "bungalow", or cabin, or efficiency. On September 1, 2010, it officially became known as the "Oongalow". And as such, I moved in to my very own studio!

I now have a place to go and create and get lost in my work, not have to hear the phone ring and spend hours that fly like minutes, only to regret that it's time to go back to the house.

What a magical place I've been given! Down the rutted road, under the ancient, leaning trees, to the little cabin with the aged siding that blends so perfectly into it's natural surroundings, and truly looks as if it's always been there or that it had been planted and simply grew there.

Out onto the deck, you can lose your breath, it's so beautiful! There, right there, Right There is the creek that flows and eddys right at your feet. There's the sand bar with the phantom wild flowers that just pop up, brought down the stream by some storm or happy, pooping, little bird. I listen to the woodpeckers, the blue jays, the house wrens and watch the flocks of wood ducks that fly up into the trees and then fly up and off to the far bank when I open the sliding door to get a better look. The other day hubby and I watched a pair of great blue herons fly over, on their way south.

I am sometimes greeted by the kayakers and canoers who paddle past on their way to the estuary and out to the sea.

This, this gift, this is what happiness means to me.