Karen!

So I stayed in a lovely bed and breakfast with my fella this weekend.....and it was simply lovely.....it has been a long time since I stayed in one, and it is indeed a special way to travel.....Being so intimately in somebody's space, eating breakfast with them in the morning, learning their lives some......feeling hosted and cared for by a stranger......it is all so intimate and wonderful.......we met Karen, a very soft spoken, kind, lovely, but also a fierce woman in her own right....you could see the beautiful tapestry that has been her life right there below the surface.....a depth and richness and passion for it all.......her home was lovely and really old.....1880.....full of charm and style....and inside was an eclectic mix of her life......her home adorned with all of her treasures, each having a story......one more interesting than the next.....she is also a chef and teaches cooking classes there......so had a wonderful wealth of information to share about food, and her love of it with us....her breakfast both mornings was so delicious .....and having a person cook me breakfast was such a treat, a love language for sure.....but her ease and way was what I found so lovely.....she made us feel so welcome in her home......from the moment we stepped in.....her husband for all intents and purposes, I don't believe they are married.....was also very lovely and welcoming too......both making us feel right at home from the first night we arrived....and having the opportunity to meet people and hear their stories is my favorite......I absolutely could have been the owner and hosted folks in a bed and breakfast in another life ;-)......my love of the human condition, and my love of caring for others, cooking and making them feel at home:) ....it could have been a career too....and I am such a firm believer that we should leave others better than we meet them.....leaving them with an impression of our true essence.....laying all the small talk guards down, and showing ourselves some.....we sat and talked with her yesterday morning over coffee and our breakfast, and it was so easy and pleasant, and left me with a lovely feeling to begin the day....and we both loved our time with Karen.....both he and I taking away the same feeling and getting it so completely....we then headed to a terrific little museum.....filled with wonderful history and interesting things....and then some more sightseeing and a late lunch before I had to fly home.....saying goodbye growing more difficult each time, but my trusting the way will continue to appear......and I got in late last night and I am excited to pick up my kids.....and Gabe has two important appointments online this morning toward his guardianship and future......so I am going to take care of that, it feels like I am back from a dream again......each time we spend time together like walking on a little sunbeam.....it was a short visit but a worthwhile one.....and I have come to learn that life is meant to be lived....out loud and fully....experiences are meant to be experienced.....and getting out there in the world some in this chapter feels pretty damn good.....Karen touched our lives....and her care and hospitality will remain with us......she is doing exactly what she should be doing in the world.....making it a better place, my kinda people! Happy Monday xoxo