It’s close to midnight on the last day of June and I look up and think- damn! I’ve posted every month this year and here I am, too much to do and losing sight of the bigger picture. Which is…what?
I am busy again. Blessedly, exhaustedly and happily buzzing away at projects, meetings, specifications, budgets, contractors, decisions, digressions, disasters, and the process of…..Design and Build. And while it is all wonderful and I am thrilled? Life's lessons are easily lost when the pain recedes; we (read I) have a great capacity to forget or diminish the difficulties. And these recent years have been full of lessons; learned once, and once again, and then another time; this time not to be forgotten. Most important is what survived and what helped me to survive.
The things that stand the test of time: those things that survive from year to year, through the hard days, through the losses and gains and heartaches? Iconic structures of the heart and mind: Corbusier’s Ronchamp Chapel, Gothic Cathedrals, Roman aqueducts…the gardens that regenerate despite (or perhaps because of) our neglect; the places and people that remain in our hearts and minds over time, space and distance. And in these time, the real stuff of my life: people who have shared in these challenging years as we helped each other pour new foundations on scorched ground. They are the bigger picture; the connections with structural integrity, built to last. And as we come through these years, they are the people with whom I find myself sharing in my future direction, both personally and professionally. We’ve survived and grown together.
Because, in the end, after all the singed wings of the last three years, all the struggle and worry? What was forged in difficulty was forged with the inherent tensile strength to withstand impediments and trials, figure out what matters, sift and sort through detritus to the heart and soul of what is real. These are the foundations of my future. Forged, indeed.
As I sit in my backyard drinking wine on another endless summer night, friends at my side, grill embers circling smoke to keep the bugs at bay; wine in my hand, fireflies blinking in the darkness, worries suspended in the softness of June dusk and soft laughter, I know what is really important… it is all here, and has withstood the test of time.
Summer nights have a magic that feels as if it will last forever, and the best of life is present in those backyard moments shared through the gentle hum of friendship and conversation. Happy July 4th, my friends. Let’s make our own fireworks….
