Jealous Walls.

Wakefield, Rhode Isand
Pandora station: John Coltrane.



I have been in my Father's house for nearly 4 weeks now and I find myself reminiscing about every transition it has has been through. I recall the hideous pink carpet, a bald light bulb over the bathroom sink, and when the coffee stain on the white rug looked like a dragon. There was also, the countless hours of "Red Light. Green Light" played in the living room, dancing around the kitchen to Jimmy Buffet, and the little blue swing that still hangs from the tree outside.

In the years since my childhood, things have changed. We are no longer the three musketeers every other weekend, but rather a little family of 4. Dad and Carla's wedding marked the biggest change these walls had seen in a long time. The ugly pink carpet was ripped up and hardwood replaced it. The kitchen is now equipped to make any type of food imaginable. (I personally see the need for more chocolate, but I am working on it.). If walls could be astonished these ones would be the first to admit it. Wednesday nights became THE night we all came together for good wine and food. Never a shortage of laughter. The garden blooms with every flower imaginable, it seems like something out of a dream. A cross between Alice in Wonderland and real life. This is a good life we have. I say it every time I am here, I love this life, these people, this house. This all started from something very small, something sacred and loved. We just wanted a place, a home that brought out the best in us and the best in everyone.

These walls are jealous. They have seen every bit of this house from the beginning. They watched my father dance in the kitchen with us as kids, read us bedtime stories, watch the same movie over and over again, fly us up to bed on a pillow, and continue the favorite family tradition of singing while decorating the Christmas tree. This is my favorite world to live in, for a little while nothing else exists while we all sit around the kitchen counter with our wine.

A comforting realization in this little world is, the future does not necessarily have to be known for the outcome to be wonderful. By default, we all know it will be. There has never been anything to suggest otherwise, regardless of the turn of events this house has seen. It was Dad who, purely by example, taught me what it means to have faith. And that faith did not necessarily have to be in a religious sense. Faith that there would be surf in the morning was a good start. So with the help of the ocean and Dad's uncanny wisdom, we have come to learn to have faith most importantly in ourselves, because he believed it first.

If I have learned anything from sitting in this kitchen it is how loved I am. And how loved we ALL are by one another. And from that alone, I have learned to live and spread love better than I could have ever tried to do alone.




And so, as the house watches us all move about in a state that we would much rather ignore or be rid of all together, we will do as we were told; to always say " I love you", embrace one another, take care of each other, allow for space but not so much that we get lost, and that it will be alright...it will be alright.