A different kind of beauty ...

I am sitting in my very pink and very bright room on a night that almost every other year you would have found me in the warmth of my family filled with thanksgiving yumminess. But tonight my family is very far away and I am missing them. My family is not picture perfect, nor are our celebrations ... but what they always have been is filled with love. I know that my family loves me.
Every other relationship I have questioned at one time or another ... but in my deep heart I have never questioned my family. There have been times that I have felt like they may not like me that much ... but beyond that I have always seen love in their eyes.
With that said I had a beautiful thanksgiving weekend. A very thoughtful and generous friend invited me up to her parent's farm near Collingwood Ontario, about an hour and a half north of Toronto. Surrounded by fog and bathed in humidity we headed out of town listening to Damien Rice. There are times when I feel a little silly for being so touched by the beauty that life has. Times when I wish that I could tone it down and be a little less cheesy. But I have found a freedom in being me that quickly pops those thoughts and lets the cheese stink ; )
The colors were what I have always dreamed they would be, and this was even without the sun highlighting their brilliance. We drove through valleys, and some of the quaintest small towns ... the kind of towns that have a flower shop, a bakery, a hardware store ... the kind of town I dream of living in one day. Really the farm could have been decrepit or a mansion and it would not have mattered. Just to be in such beautiful country with such a family that opened their home for an Albertan orphan was enough. But once again I felt overwhelmed with how blessed I am. After driving past a field of asparagus gone to seed (looks like huge dill plants with little red berries)down a curved road around a little pond we pulled up to the sweetest farm house. With a porch wrapped around its belly we were taken into a home that smelled of essential oils (home made soap was being made of course!) and yummy food. We were fed the most tasty home cooked soup and pumpkin muffins and surrounded with the hustle of a reunited family. The farm house has been completely renovated and added to over the last five years and I swear it was right out of my dreams. It even had an attic studio for me to paint, write, and read in.
We walked around the orchard and picked apples, threw sticky thorn balls at each other, laughed, and inhaled the fresh air. Dinner was amazing with a juicy turkey, apple and cranberry chutney and pumpkin cheese cake. We had a huge fire and let the stars steal our attenders. I slept like a baby with the warm breeze coming through my window. It was as perfect as a thanksgiving away from my family could have been. How does one girl, who so often makes mistakes and still has so much to learn about loving, be so very blessed. Grace. Thank you Lisa girl.
I hope you all felt as blessed and thankful as me this weekend of thanks! Love you so.