home stretch

i should have known not to call any place the final stop on my nomadic tour until all the details were settled, but now they are and it is less than 2 weeks until i move into my own place again.

less than 2 weeks. thirteen days.

so close. we are so very very close.

i move in on march 14th, 2012, exactly eight months {to the day} after i moved out of my apartment at #44.

finally.
i get to put down roots.
i get my own kitchen.
i get newly refinished floors and painted walls.
i get to host lovely gatherings. as many as i have time to organize.
i get to re-imagine my books in a new way.
i get to paint {in a light-filled room} all the colors i found in europe.
i get to snuggle under a new down comforter purchased to celebrate the reunion.
i get to take baths in a claw foot tub again.
i get to stretch out into corners and window boxes and back porches.
i get to invite you in, make you a meal, show off the parts of my spirit that cannot be seen except when they are allowed to spill out in all their vivid colors into the spaces under ceilings and next to walls.
i get to have my own house key again.
i get to have a home.
i get to go home.
again.
and again.
and again.

my landing-place has returned to me.

and as much as it has been vital for me to live and connect and create without relying on a home space, having only myself to rely on, i finally get to return to a rooted life. as a choice, i give myself the gift {one should never take for granted} of the ease and joy of always having a landing-place. and as i search back through my blog to provide you with the above link, i am reminded that i first came across the two janet winterson quotes from that entry while i was in housing limbo 3 1/2 years ago, just before i first moved out into my own place for the first time. it was so scary then not knowing where i would be going and feeling like i was giving up the most wonderful home i could ever have, but things have only gotten more and more beautiful starting that first apartment i got to have all to myself: here.