I have finally come through the time that I began to refer to as Purging In Purgatory, equidistant between the life that was Dragonfly Cottage and the life that would be. That’s what life felt like there. And oddly it wasn’t just me. My dearest friend in the world, Jeffrey, came over late yesterday afternoon. It has been a very strange time, time out of time, but I wondered about that house the whole time I lived there. It was a 1940’s house and nothing ever felt right. My darling Jeffrey only visited me one time there.
Yesterday he came in so happy to be in my newly rebuilt cottage, he brought beautiful apples, brie, and a nice bottle of wine. He loved everything. He said it was so beautiful he just couldn’t get over it. Very c0lorful, yes, but light and airy, there is a kind of joy here that is felt. He explained that he just couldn’t go to that rental house. He got a terrible headache after being there, and dreaded going. It was something about that house. He asked Christy about it, a young woman that works for him and came over to help me once a week the whole 7 months I lived there. She said she always left with a headache. It was truly a kind of purgatory and the energy there wasn’t bright or light or joyous. In retrospect I wonder how much I, like the house that had burned down, had to shed to begin life anew? There was so much loss in the 8 months from the night of the fire to the day I moved back in, waves of loss in many ways, that it was akin, to me, to the Pupa stage where everything is too tight, painful, the last stages of shedding before the Dragonfly is free. I felt caught in the dark confines of the Pupa stage in those months in that little house, and other people felt it too.
I am drawn to people who, like me, are very sensitive to energy, and Jeff is an amazing soul. He said, just today, that returning to the house, seeing and feeling how light and beautiful it is, makes sense after a raging fire burned straight up and out through the roof, purifying any dark spirit energy or unhappy souls still left inside. I took a deep breath. We shall, of course, never know, but it is an interesting thing to think about.
My life here, now, is about making a home, the home I will spend the rest of my life in, God willing. Today I wrote on my new chalkboard, “Thank you God for my life.” I feel deeply grateful. I have been through a period of time I would not wish on anyone, and yet… even as I write that I know that I am happier than I have ever been and I seem to have had to go through what I’ve been through to get here. So I will leave everyone to their own journeys, and I will tell those who ask to hold on with all their might through the darkest hours because the dawn is just ahead.
I woke up this morning aching all over because I was pinned to the back of the couch like a butterfly pinned to a board in a science class by 3 pugs sleeping and snoring soundly. Our mattresses don’t arrive until Monday and the pugs are getting their bearings too. I got up twice to go to the bathroom and they all bounded up and were practically glued to my ankles as I walked to and fro. Normally if I have to get up in the night they stay asleep, or perhaps tiny Delilah will sit up and wait to make sure that Mama comes back, but it was our first night here and they, like I, have been having that very strange feeling that we are home but this isn’t our house, not quite, not yet.
But the sun did rise and the dawn did come and today it was glorious, that early morning autumn peachy pink light coming in through the studio windows displaying it’s glory across The Cozy Room floor where we slept, and first one small one, and then another, roused and bounced all over me until I said, “Okay, let’s GO! Let’s go OUT!” They all rushed out into the big, wide world that is our back yard here at Dragonfly Cottage, part gardens, part woods, and as they trotted around I perused the gardens, and then we all stood in the empty back corner where once there had been a Magic Ship. Interesting how it, too, disappeared with the first Dragonfly Cottage, even though a fire didn’t take it a tree falling in an ice storm did. And the saddest thing of all was that the grand, cast iron mermaid that had sat on the bough of the ship was face down in the dirt. I was shocked. How could they have left her there like that? Now she rests against the old 1800’s piece of wrought iron fence with a gate in it that I bought for the garden at a junk yard when I first moved in. It would seem that almost nothing was allowed to stay.
Now, having just arrived home at the beginning of autumn, my favorite time of year since I was a child, it feels like a beautiful time, a perfect time, to begin anew. I have to slog through the mountain of paperwork for disability now that I have finally made it home, and I have to begin to dream a new life here, a deeper life, a better life. My own old, dark spirit went up the night of the fire too. I don’t look any different but I feel about one hundred pounds lighter and goodness it feels fabulous.
The thing about living through a fire or, I’m sure, any other near tragedy when one’s life has been hanging in the balance and they barely escaped death, is that on the one hand things that had seemed scary before no longer do, or not much, and everything seems possible. Somewhere a slate has been wiped clean and we can write a new story. My new art wall, 9 feet long, 1/3 white board, 1/3 chalkboard, and 1/3 corkboard is, I just realized today, a life size vision board. I am going to write and dream and dance and sing my way into a whole new life. As I write that I feel giddy, full of potent possibility abundant, everything is possible, yes, everything is possible!
And so I will record this journey here. I am casting the seeds of a glorious life now in my 60th year. Before I go to bed I am going to order seeds to plant in the fall garden. Poppies I think, thousands of poppies. They are Dorothy’s flower, and she knew, like I know tonight, that there is no place like home, and I don’t know what the future will hold but I know what tonight does. Tonight it is crisp autumn air coming in through the windows, and 3 sleeping snoring pugs curled up next to me on the couch. It is the feeling of a deep, gentle love in my belly, and a longing for someone far away, that kind of sweetness held in the heart like a note held long at the end of a beautiful song. What feels like the end is still a ripe, rich kind of beauty. I will savor every moment of my life now. The young rush. The gift of the years turned golden is the slowness of honey dripping almost suspended in time.
These are the golden days, and, at long last, I am home.
Hi, Maitri, I’m so glad to read your post. I, too, slept in my bed upstairs in my new digs for the first time. Such a cozy feeling to begin my new life. I’m looking forward to putting the house in order and continuing the purge of old and surplus. I get to create a lighter footprint on Mother earth, no longer weighed down by old energies and stuff. I’m so glad you found your mermaid unharmed. It will be so pretty when the poppies come blooming. I look forward to bring you a special gift for your new space. Love you. Noni Baloney
I can’t say enough how special it is to feel the joy and hope and light heartedness in your post since coming home to the cottage. You truly had a walk in the desert. May this joy remain for the rest of your days and may the inspiration of “home” take you to new heights.
I am so glad to hear the peace and joy in this post returning to you. It must feel great to be starting fresh and be home. I know there is some bittersweet too. I am also very sensitive to energies, and know what you mean about homes and how they feel. What you described here is how I felt upon entering our cottage for the first time. Having lived in a house with a heavier energy for years, it felt like vacation coming to my own new home. It was as if there was love infused in the walls, and echoes of joy and lightness here. Other sensitive healer friends of mine have told me it felt like a warm embrace when they entered. But I digress.. So glad you are doing OK. This was a fun read with nice imagery. I celebrate you and your new life!
Congratulations with moving in. I’m so happy you’ve found happiness and rest again. New beginnings aren’t easy, but they stop being new and they stop being beginnings.
Yesterday I went with my oldest son to the place where I’ve been as a child. I was there at the age of 8, planted in a large dark building to gain health. I learned there was loneliness is, and injustice, dishonesty and manipulation, or rather being manipulated.
My happiest memory is of being left alone at the beach for hours. They’d forgotten me and only found at at dinnertime. By then I’d built an enormous sandcastle and had been on a mindjourney so far away that I’d probably have been beyond the stars. Finally time for creative expression and being myself. Never could that at home or in that home.
I’ve been back to that house before, realizing I wouldn’t be back for many many years to come.
Now I was there again with my son. The little village had become a large seaside resort with huge apartment buildings. How human beings can change a friendly fishersvillage in just 50 years. But it put the lonely house on the dunes in far more friendly surroundings. The bad memories had not faded, but transformed in far away events that happened when I was a little girl and couldn’t handle the world, nor my world. And the world couldn’t handle me. When I left there I’d lost more weight than I was supposed to gain.
For the first time in my life that dark time under a gruesome veil has transformed into something I can’t describe. It’s like watching a movie.
I like the place, not the large buildings, but the crowded street was relaxed and felt happy. The sea was the colour I love so much. And when I saw a house for sale I said: “maybe this is where I should live. I like it here.”
I can’t buy a house. I will never have the money, but a circle is closed. And all I hope is that, when a miracle happens, and sometimes they do, I will have the guts to change it into a home so colourful and feelings good as yours.
I’m so happy for you, Maitri. So happy. I can’t tell.
Now let that bed arrive, so your back will get some rest too.
Hugggggsss.
Maitri, what a profoundly beautiful story of your rebirth — like the phoenix from the ashes. Or, more gently, I could say that I see you rising from the sea of sorrows like a glorious Venus! It is a burden but a GIFT to be so very sensitive that you feel everything so deeply. I rejoice with you that you are finding a new happiness in a space of clear, warm, light energy! And all the Angels sing…! With so much love, Jem
Dear Maitri,
I am so happy to hear of the good energy you are feeling now. Like a phoenix, here you go into the new future.
The cottage looks lovely, with all the colors and the pugs enjoy the yard again. Sending you best wishes for a fun
and creative life in Dragonfly Cottage!
Magic art wall waits
for maitri’s wondrous visions
to appear – presto!!!
Sweet honey nectar
fills up what felt so empty
sunshine nutrients
yay for homecoming!!!!!
xo
ka
Welcome home. ❤
The sense of energy and new beginnings infuse your post ~ truly the cottage has been transformed with fresh space, color, and hope. May there be much joy in the unpacking, unfolding, arranging, and settling in.
You describe it all so beautifully the whole piece is “a sweetness held in the heart”.
I’m really happy to read about each new step. You sound surrounded by loving supporters. We all share in your joy. 🙂
So glad you are home…it surely does sound like an exciting new beginning !
I have been facing some challenges I wasn’t up to facing before, and even baby steps feel great.
In this moment, I am well and have everything I need.
It sounds like you do too…
Sending love and home blessings to you, the pugs and Miss Scarlet
Happy to read that you are setteling in and starting with your new life.
How wonderful to read about your re-emergence into your beautiful new home. It sounds like a beautiful place for a new, re-forged you to build a new and even more vibrant life.