"Into a Larger Freedom"

     Happy New Year!  I began this blog exactly one year ago having high hopes that I would be headed to France by this time.  So, the title of my blog is quite appropriate!  I still have some more bends to maneuver.  I am determined to start on the kitchen this week.  The ceiling has been scraped (and washed) for months and the room is small enough that I should be able to finish it in a week - or so . . .  I bought a kit for refinishing the counter tops and hope that it is as easy to use and as great with its result as the kit I used on my wood floors.    I also plan to paint everything - the ceiling, the walls, the cabinets, the door and window frames.  I'll get new hardware for the cabinets and drawers.  I promise to do before and after pics.
     My inspiration this week came from my favorite book by Frances Mayes.  She recounts a time when a total stranger called her to ask for her opinion about buying a cottage on the other side of the US. 
     "What's the down side?" she asks.
      "What are you thinking of doing?" asks Frances. 
     "The islands off the coast of Washington.  I've always loved them.  There's this place for sale, my friends think I'm crazy because it's all the way across the country . . . "
     "There's no downside" she answers.  Then she asks the woman if she ever heard the old motto: "Follow your bliss."
      "Yes," she answers, but then adds "I'm not sure this makes sense."
      I love Frances' reply:  "Well, does it seem that you'd be moving into a larger freedom?  I've had an incredible amount of fun here."  She says this even though the entire book has been about all the efforts made to restore their old farmhouse.  But she always thinks about the sun, the wonderful Tuscan sun that warms everything it touches, including her!

The Tuscan Sun

The Gascon (SW France) Sun

     And that, dear friends, is what I want to achieve - a larger freedom.  Freedom from debt, freedom from a mortgage and home owners insurance and property taxes.  Freedom to explore someplace new every day.  Freedom to see who I am in another culture and to speak another language and to expand my knowledge of the world, and to look at things from a different perspective, to feel that I am in the presence of something larger than myself.  Freedom to eat healthy natural food and not feel like I'm on a diet.  Freedom to walk everywhere and not feel like I'm exercising.
    So I think that is my motto for this new year.  I will weigh every decision by asking if it leads me into a larger freedom.  I want to collect moments and not things as I go around the bends and along the path.  Thank you for joining me on this journey as I continue to follow my "Eastward Pointing Compass."