Five years ago today, we arrived here after leaving what was meant to be our forever house. We didn’t realize what we were getting into. It’s California, we said. Surely it will be easy. It wasn’t. Or maybe we’re just getting older. Starting all over again was harder than we were figuring. When we arrived, the house was so rank we spent much of that first summer sleeping in the van while working on the remodel. The pastures where we thought we could graze horses were overgrown with dried weeds. The land was scarred from old fires and tangled with all kinds of invasive things that poke, stick, prick, scratch and itch. And the hill where our garden now grows was a mysterious mess of vines and gravel. Thank you, my beloved Bob, for seeing the diamond in the rough with me. All that weed whacking and mowing, digging and trenching, falling and milling trees, and moving manure and dirt paid off. Today, the land shines. Sure, it’s still rough and rustic, a continual project and never slick around the edges. So are we. But it is a peaceful sanctuary: happy, healthy, abundant and beautiful. A place where bucks join us on fresh summer evenings and wild geese come to raise their young. A place where the redwing blackbird chooses to nest and earthworms multiply faster than ground squirrels. A place where we sleep out on the deck under twinkling stars and ancient oaks, and the Riverwind breeze keeps mosquitos away. Where tree frogs, toads and crickets serenade us to sleep and the rooster joined by a cacophony of birds wakes us at dawn. Where bees, butterflies and hummingbirds sip natural nectar. Where green grass grows and the twenty-something fruit trees we planted flourish (in spite of those nibbling bucks). Where bears outnumber truck traffic by around three to one. Where the sun is our power and the river our bath. Where horses roam without fences and the bounty of the garden is shared with friends. I know, it need not be forever. Nothing is. But today, even in this heat (well, maybe) it holds me. Safe and strong and beautifully. Filling me for whatever comes next.