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Moving Archives

Honouring the Past & Welcoming the Future

2 May 2012 - 4 Comments

April 3, 2012

Nearly two years ago my daughter, Maya and I created a ceremony to “let go” of our home and the land we cherish, and to embrace our new life in town. We had relinquished all hope of getting a Conservation Sale through the Nature Conservancy of Canada and BC Parks, after working diligently for 4 years. Now we were placing Bold Bluff on the open market.

Maya and I found a beautiful huge moon snail shell on our low tide mud flat and brought it reverently up to our home. Here we dug a hole near the bank overlooking the cove and buried it wrapped in my Mother’s flowered napkin to protect it, and we put a glittering white quarts stone we found on our land inside it. We talked about how much we loved Bold Bluff and all it has given us, and cried buckets of tears. We asked that the land be passed onto people who will grow to cherish and protect it. We promised that when the land was sold we would dig up the moon snail and place it in a prominent place of honour in my new home.

A year later I accepted an offer to buy Bold Bluff from two young Canadian families, and fortunately they gave me over a year to bid goodbye to this sacred place. Now the time is closing and we will be moved by June 30, 2012.

Digging up the Moon Snail Shell

This lovely spring afternoon in sunshine with the daffodils in bloom Maya and I dug up that moon snail. We had forgotten where we had buried it, but I thought it was nestled between two bleached maple branches of an old maple that fell in 1992. Into the black, rich earth my shovel went in a tiny careful circle. The earth was squirming with fat spring earth worms! And there was the shell! Ever so carefully we brought it to the light. Its opening was filled with dirt and when we shook it, it rattled with the quartz inside.

Moon Snail we Dug Up

Maya washed it with a tooth brush and we held its beauty in our hands, contemplating it will be a reminder of our past life at Bold Bluff and a messenger of the future – an entirely new life opening up for me without the challenges of boat access and maintaining a large estate. This time we shed no tears. We are ready to move on.

Moon Snail Cleaned and Exquisite!

 

 

 

If you are moving and selling a cherished home, creating ceremonies to let go and move on can help heal your spirit. Letting go of stuff and places is challenging. Ceremony creates a pathway to acknowledge the present and welcome the future. Shedding tears and laughter are part of the journey!

 

 

Biology of Moon Snail (Euspira lewisii)

The Moon Snail is a slow moving gastropod that lives between the high tide and the low tide on sandy and muddy beaches. It has a gigantic fleshy foot that it inflates with sea water when it moves, and squirts out when it wants to withdraw into its shell (which is its skeleton). Moon snails eat snails, clams and oysters by drilling tidy holes in the shells and pouring an acid which dissolves the weak tissue of the bivalves. Then they suck up the juicy meal!

Some of you will have seen sand collars on the mud flats – the egg cases of these lovely snails. They are made from a layer of sand, a layer of eggs, and another layer of sand. About 100,000 tiny moon snails hatch out of one egg case!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keys to my Town House

22 March 2012 - 5 Comments

Empty Home

March 21, 2012

Today I received the keys to my “Palace full of Grace” in town. I have 3 more months to actually move into Ganges and become a “Town Mouse”. I was excited and brought a few rolls of toilet paper, a towel and new hand made soap. All the furniture and boxes from the previous owners were gone. The 2 story house was supremely empty.

I felt lonely and dejected. What AM I doing, leaving my magnificent home I have cherished for 47 years? Even my shepadoodle dog, Daisy, was nervous. She took one look around, bolted out the door and came back triumphantly stinking of dead fish. Smart Poodle! I ought to have consulted with her before buying my Town House. She smelled wretched to my nose and obviously delicious to hers.

So, here is an empty home, uncluttered and serene. Is this what I want? No way.

When the Feng Shui experts talk about clearing your clutter to make space for you to live serenely and creatively, they do encourage you to keep objects that give you pleasure and to place them in specific spots to maximize the energy flow of your home. This makes sense. They also talk of clearing your past so you can be awake to the present. Surrounding yourself with incomplete projects weighs you down.

On my way home in the boat I embraced the scent of salt air and majestic Mt. Maxwell rising out of Burgoyne Bay. The sparkling blue sea, the green forest, the ducks chasing each other in the cove and the Canada Geese pair  flying into the cove making a racket, greeted my dog and me as once again we returned home – to my cluttered log house that is friendly and vibrant with my past history and all the people who have influenced my life.

Bold Bluff Lodge - Tamar's Home

Bold Bluff Lodge - Tamar's Home

 

Into the bathtub Daisy went. “Sorry Pup, I can’t stand your fishy smell!” She tolerated the insult, standing ever so still as I rubbed shampoo over her curly black hair and rinsed her with a hose. Her reward was a raw bone.

Moving is hard. My resolve falters. This is not fun. I passionately love my old family home. What have I done? Is this for real? Am I really walking away from Bold Bluff?

Perhaps my sorrow is grieving for a chapter in my life that is closing. I will never again be the radiant Mother of 40, who had abundant energy and zest for life – whose whole being was loving, nourishing, protecting a precious baby and child. I will never again be the courageous woman who brought her 12 year old child to Bold Bluff to live full time without a road on a magnificent oceanfront property my parents bought in 1965. The excitement of being close to ocean storms in an open Boston Whaler has vanished. I LOVED gales, and I LOVED it when our power went out for 5-6 days. The sorrow is recognizing I don’t welcome the danger and adventure anymore. Something is shifting in my soul, and it is scary. If I look closely at it, could it be aging? Am I really approaching the last chapter of my life? When I look in the mirror, I can’t believe what I see. Is that really me? Can’t be!

Well, here I am. Of course there is grieving to “moving on”. Maybe this whole process is getting in touch with my own mortality.