However, this year the sentiment has become all the more vivid in the core of my being. I started this year with the loss of not just a survival job but having a dear friend move away. A friend whose dogs I had walked, whose house had become a second home dear to me, as I had house-sat there, filmed many a scene there for our modern day Macbeth, Daggers In Men's Smiles. So, not only was I losing a source of income, but losing a place familiar to my heart and the constant connection of a dear friend.
Another friend told me about the dog-walking site, Rover.com, and I joined. Thus, my survival job as a dog-walker/dog sitter grew in leaps and bounds; I have house-sat in many places around the valley this year. Because of this, I could take you all over the valley, from Ashland to Medford, pointing out various places where I have lived and for a time, a week or more, called home.
On top of that, my boyfriend and I had to spend a week out of our apartment due to bathroom repairs, thus lived for a bit over a week in a local, lovely, motel called the Manor Inn. (FYI: the staff was lovely, considerate, kind, and I strongly recommend the place!) Thus, there is another place I can point to in my travels around town. '
In April, we were given a no-cause termination notice on our apartment, but were very fortunate enough to move into a lovely three bedroom home outside of Ashland. Its been a dream come true.
Added to that, there are the places I frequented, the places I once resided, worked at, from years of old that are still homes within my heart. There have been the frequent travels north, back to Eugene and Portland, where I re-visited the familiar haunts in those places. Thus, I can truly say that the notion of "home being of the heart", not a mere location, has become an even clearer reality.
Which leads me to the next lesson of 2018: Community. Or as I like to think of it, Common Unity. In today's world, there appears to be a lack of what is a vital need for our souls. Thus, if we are not of the religious mindset, we lack a sense of community and without knowing any real place to discover it, to fulfill that need. What I have discovered this year is that we need to empower ourselves to seek out and design that community for ourselves, looking back at the true meaning of the word, that is, as mentioned above, common unity. For my part, I have found and reclaimed my own community, common unity, through various means, theatre, film, my own business being able to marry the ideas of work with relationships. Because, in the end, all of life is just that: relationships. In these relationships and common unity, I have been able to find the honesty to fully encounter my heart's home, finding peace, strength, and solace within which gives me the bold determination to do the like for my own created community, common unity, relationships.
Lastly, the connection of home within my heart, a state of being, and the true meaning of community has given me the strength to face myself, to stand up to the detrimental effects of hatred and bullying, to those that wish to hinder my way and those of my dearest kindred spirits, and through this empowered new life focus to find the healing release of the wounds of past emotional abuse.
Through this healing, my own sense of community within the home in my heart has given me a peace that surpasses the external reality of my life, whatever it may be good or bad, with a renewed focus, clearly described and designed, leading me higher and higher into achieving my destiny.
In 2019, I do so hope that not only will I continue to thrive, to heal, to connect more deeply with my center, but I wish the same for you, gentle reader. Go forth into the world and seek to know, to understand, to truly see and be seen, to connect, and to arrive home within your heart, finally, at peace.
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