Saying Good Bye to Mayberry

It's been 13 days since I pulled out of Mason with everything I could fit shoved into the back of a discount movers truck.
We snuck out under the cover of darkness at about 3:30 in the morning.
Not because we were trying to pull an undercover op abandon, they just didn't arrive to Move me until late that night.

Better late than never, right?

The same shining stars that drew me like a magnet years before, were the only ones to quietly watch and witness the bittersweet exit.

Since the move, I've been wanting to write but I've been in a strange new place.
Literally and mentally.
I apologize to my four faithful readers.
It's taken some time to process the change of moving back to the big city and leaving so much behind.

Much that needed to be.

For 13 years, that tiny little town was my whole world.
It was my life and my daughter's lives.
A life filled with joy, pain, tears of sorrow and heartbreak and tears of joy.
It was a life with a lot of laughter and best friends like Corinne and Maddie.

It was as close to Mayberry as you can get these days.

A life where there were no stop lights.
No one hurrying to get here or there.
Everyone knows everyone and everything.
If they don't know, they at least probably heard from so and so who heard from so who heard from so and so's second cousin, one county over...

I loved that place!!
I really did.
We sang Christmas songs at Christmas Pageants....and did not adopt the concept of Happy Holidays.

It was a town where I regularly feared I would get carpal tunnel of the wrist from waving "hello" all day.
A place where I didn't have to worry about my kids 'cause if they were causing trouble, I'd hear about it in no time flat.

The Odeon Theatre called me once to tattle on my oldest who snuck out of the movie with a boy in a white pick up truck.
Now that's great customer service!!
Unless you're my daughter of course, in which case it falls into the "Nosy, mind your own business, category."

It was a home to wildflowers just like me, ever changing and growing....wilting in the sun on occasion.
The gorgeous Llano River, sometimes raging....
It was a place for me to grow and learn to go with the flow.

The memories of our years in Mason, flood my mind...now that we've gone.

Though it was rumored we lived in a teepee, we in fact, did not.
But the story about me taking a dead pig to pre-school for Show and Tell is absolutely true.
And hilarious.
What a great story that is!!

And super ironic.
Pigs are a recurring theme in my life.
I collect flying ones.
And then of course, there's "Pig's Big Adventure!"

We were always having adventures.

I taught two daughters to drive on red dirt roads.
Later, straight into ditches.
One daughter stole the communion wine from church and also threw up all over the Sheriff's ostrich boots.
Andy Griffith would not have tolerated such sha-nan-igans.

I learned what "that dog don't hunt" means.
I learned without ever meaning or wanting to, how to incorporate "I'm fixin' to....blah blah blah"....into sentences.
Wow. I never that I'd ever say that phrase.
And I know....never say never.

There are people in that town that I will never, never, ever forget and clients who became life long friends.
Too many to list.
John and Pat Hrdlicka, I adore you!

Mary and Dewey....
Do we even have to say anything other than, thank you Lord!
God provided me the best spiritual parents I could have asked for and you loved me even at my most unloveable moments.

Then, of course, there were those who were mean to me from the git go and never changed one bit.
God bless ya!
You know who are and I pray he blesses your socks off, and may you find a rattle snake in your boots when you step into them tomorrow morning...

:) totally kidding.
I know that out of the heart speaks....but, truly, be super blessed!

There are so many things that I will miss about living the simple, small town life.
No longer is checking my mail at the post office the happy hour highlight of my day.

Now I have a beautiful HEB just a few miles up the road and I can play Food Network now whenever I want!
I now need to hook up with new friends who would actually understand the concept of calling a grocery store beautiful.

There are reading, writing and speaking opportunities opening up for me here already.
Opportunities I've prayed and hoped for, for years.
But it's taken a giant leap of faith to get things rolling along.

Though the actual moving part of moving is never fun...(in fact, after 22 years in real estate, I've learned to steer clear of buyers and sellers on moving day) and now I remember why...
The packing and unpacking and loading and unloading, sort of sucks....

But honestly, the worst part was the sorting.
Deciding what to keep and what to throw away.
There was a lot of stuff I needed to just leave behind.

The kind of baggage you carry.
And the kind that carries you.

I wake up now in a peaceful third floor apartment and thank God for bringing me one step closer to crossing the Jordan without drowning in the many moments I thought I might have over the last few years.

But he's faithful.
Much more so than me.

I made a promise not to smoke after I got here, but Day One, after 36 hours with no sleep, I met the maintenance guy, Mike, at the electronic dumpster and caught him with one in his hand.

"Hey, can I bum one of those from you? Technically, I quit."
"Sure," he smiles and hands me a long, skinny, stick of poison and temporary peace.
"It's chocolate mint," he says.

I laugh out loud!
"Of course it is!! How awesome that God who knows how much I love chocolate would enable me to have one last cig that's chocolate flavored!"

"I will never smoke again I say to myself."

Ugh.
And then I remember.
Never say never.
And in everything, give thanks.
He's not finished with me yet.