This photo was taken on Feb. 9, 2002… 13 years ago, when Amelia was about six months old, and we were enjoying a family dinner at our home on Rocky Creek Road. We were joined by our other local family members, including Great Grandma Theresa Julien, Grandma Ginny Martin, Grandpa Bill Martin, Ann Kiefert, Chuck Bowling, and their kids Grace and Claire. I’m pretty sure this was one of the first dinners in this home, which was brand new at that time.
Although we moved from that home “into town” back in 2008, it was so special to us – holding priceless memories of both Amelia and Riley’s earliest years, and many of our own defining life-choices – that we could never bear to part with it. So, we have rented it out all this time, miraculously, to one family. Last weekend, we drove past the moving van of Brian and Elizabeth Verrico and their kids as it left Rocky Creek Road, carrying them and their things to a new locale on North Carolina’s eastern shore. Over this span of time, they too became dear to us; with heavy hearts, we watched them go… while wishing them all the best in deepest gratitude.
And now, today, the sale of this home built just for us is set to go through. Reminding ourselves of our own new adventures-to-come in a city that, for us, is altogether new – Asheville – we are looking forward to the future… even while this wonderful past is performing magnificent, shape-shifting shadow-work right before our eyes. So often it seems that dreams are what we imagine may come true someday, but this experience is making it clear how at times, our only wish is to climb back into the past to enjoy it a little while longer. Acknowledging those great good times with appreciation for today, and lots of hope for tomorrow.
