mountaintop

13 months of isolation was followed by 12 days of family visits. You could get the bends from such an intense change. But it was far better than it was stressful.

Four months of massive, post-renovation unpacking, re-purging (and I thought the initial purge was gigantic) and organizing ended the day before my mother arrived. 99% of the little boxes I placed on the three-year to-do list had been checked off. Unpacking has been historically heinous for me. [The trade-off between never moving and never unpacking had always seemed a reasonable one. A big renovation changed all that.] But I was retired for three of those months and that alone transformed the hated chore into mostly tolerable and occasionally enjoyable.

I got to cook for my family in a kitchen that makes one of my favorite activities a real joy. Argentinian steak with chimichurri sauce. Roasted green beans and platano chips. Meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Requests for red velvet cake and german chocolate cake happily fulfilled. Even the items that didn’t turn out perfectly–I am rusty from 13 months of renovation living in a tiny garage apartment with a postage-stamp sized kitchen–are pardoned that with an inner graciousness that I rarely extend to myself. I thank my kitchen.

Working with my sister and sister-in-law on getting the house ready for mom’s arrival. (We call it “Dolorifying” the place, playing with her given name and her herculean-level cleaning skills. See also: “Dolorable,” which describes her innate, diminutive cuteness. Those flowery leggings are dolorable!)

Glancing over and seeing my sisters’ absorbed in their books.

Sipping coffee in the sunlit corner of the kitchen with mom.

Seeing them relax–like they’re here all the time–so comfortable and at-home.

All of this in a house that has been transformed by a 25-years-in-the-making renovation. I am at the summit of a mountain of work–a long and difficult climb. But the renovation was not “done” until I showed it to mom. Her response was gratifying and delightful. She loved all of it. So did my youngest sister as well as my big sister and her wife.

This is success of the sweetest kind.