Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Y IS FOR YELLOW ROSE OF TEXAS

My theme for A to Z this year is a wildly different, but very exciting, HERE'S TO YOU all month long. 26 posts to be precise. The most difficult part was narrowing down the 26. All of you deserve your own post. What you will find here is a post by the featured blogger, with traveling music chosen by me that complements said post, and two links. One will link back to the original post and the other to the main page. This year's A to Z is all about making new friends!

A Yellow Rose of Texas is none other than my good friend, Jasmine. She is one of the few bloggers that I have met in person. And she is delightful. I mean seriously wonderful. What my dad would have called "good people." She is just as real, honest, and forthright in person as on her blog. Okay, more so. I am one of her biggest fans. Now, I bet you think she lives in Texas. Nope. But she is trying to get there. She says this on her blog, "Sorting through an emotional journey to reach a physical place that more precisely represents that which resides in my soul... I have come to realize that we are not always born in our 'home' and that my uniquely conservative, yet non-traditional viewpoint is best suited in a place called Texas. "I'm going where the sun keeps shinin' through the pourin' rain, going where the weather suits my clothes, bankin' off of the northeast winds, sailin' on summer breeze, and skippin' over the ocean like a stone..."-Harry Nilsson, from Midnight Cowboy"




Cue the traveling music:



Echoes by Jasmine
11/6/13

It echoes in my kitchen.  I have gotten rid of so much, that the place literally echoes.  I noticed it the other day.  It made me think about when we first moved into this house, almost 12 years ago.

I needed this home so much back then.  I needed something, anything that really was a home.

We had moved here from a tiny little cinder block rental house and this house was so huge compared to what we had moved from that it echoed in every room.

The house wasn't the only thing that felt empty.  My heart was empty.

I had just 'lost' my mother to her mental illness.  My sister had just had a baby, that I instantly fell madly in love with, and she had taken him 4 and 1/2 hours away to live with a man that she wasn't legally supposed to be seeing at all.

I so desperately needed something solid, something with a real foundation that I could build upon.  That's what this house has been for me.

This house has been the place where my husband and I have both grown into ourselves.  We have loved our friends and family so freely here.  We have shared this home for more time than either of us have ever come close to being in any other home, in either of our lives.

Now, over the last couple of years, we have been preparing to leave in search of new and different adventures.  We are both more sure than ever that it's time to go, to seek out the sun, to find yet another facet of ourselves that we haven't met yet.

And so I have been slowly, but surely, emptying out this house.  I have known for a while now that I intend to leave without much baggage.  We will leave this place in a very similar state to what it was when we came here.  There will be echoes in the empty rooms and my heart will be open and ready for the next big thing.






It isn't easy to make a change, but it can be the best thing we do for ourselves. I hope you join Jasmine in her journey. It is exciting to reach out and embrace life and she certainly is doing that!

26 comments:

  1. That's rather sad. Glad you have met Jasmine in person. We don't often get to meet blogger buddies.

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  2. That's a poignant post. I suppose we know instinctively when it's time to leave a place or situation.

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  3. I'm ready to embrace a new change too, but hubby's not quite there yet, so I'll wait. And hope it doesn't take too many more winters for him to decide. ;)

    I like that your friend and her husband instinctively know that it's time to go, and they're ready and willing. Wishing them much luck with the future journey!

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  4. I know that feeling of moving. A lot of mixed emotions with a flood of memories. I like Jasmine's outlook on things. She stops by my blog with some frequency and I'm always glad when she does.

    Lee
    Wrote By Rote
    An A to Z Co-host blog

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  5. A post that's ripe with emotion. I hope the change has come, and a good one. :)

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  6. This was a deep post - some real thinking and emotion went into it.

    I have seen many Yellow Rose Of Texas comments in the Comment Sections of various blogs I've visited over the years, and I have always been impressed by what she has written in those comments.

    I can also very, very much relate to her feeling of a need to leave where she is and move on to the next place, because that is EXACTLY where I am in my own life today. I am not too far off from leaving this hellish place called Phoenix, Airheadzona. I know where I'm moving next, and it will be my last place to settle down before The Good Lord calls me Home.

    As soon as I've managed to save up $5,000 dollars, I will be saying goodbye to my Brother and Sister and, hopefully in God's Very Capable Hands, moving out of state to a place my heart tells me I should spend the remaining years of my life.

    This was a slightly sad but poignant post. Jasmine has my best wishes for a more fulfilling future and home life.

    ~ D-FensDogg
    'Loyal American Underground'

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  7. Nice post, Robin and Jasmine. Jasmine, your emotion here is so raw and genuine, reading it is like living a song. Beautiful.
    Deb@ http://debioneille.blogspot.com

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  8. change can be good as long as we try not to resist it and embrace it. great post - NTMY Jasmine!
    Robin, i love how you brought all these great bloggers to your place for the challenge - great seeing such a variety of posts!
    one to go!

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  9. I've been following this blog for a while and have found we see eye to eye on many issues.

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  10. What a beautiful post! I did a LOT of moving over the years, and when I got married (for the 3rd time), the first thing we did was buy an apartment. Something I'd never have to move from, and a sense of security no one could take away.

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  11. What a touching post. I love turning new corners, you know, going somewhere that you're not familiar with, like a new house. I guess it's an explorer spirit.

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  12. Life is all about change. You just have to be optimistic and see what's waiting around the bend.

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  13. This post hit home as my husband and I discuss selling the huge house we raised our children in. It's too big for us as is the outside grounds for us to afford and take care of. But every room has so many memories. To the children, it is home. They would rather we keep it forever. Bittersweet.

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  14. Never get attached to houses or cars has been my motto. I may have fond memories of the house our kids grew up in, but a new place makes us change up things. Cleans out the cobwebs and leaves old ghosts behind.
    Good luck Jasmine! I've never regretted pulling up stakes and moving to the west. . .

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  15. Very poetic. I don't get sentimentally attached to stuff like my house, so when I move I imagine my last words about my house will be to the insurance investigator: "No, I have no idea how those oil-soaked rags came to be stored next to the fireplace." I will phone those in from Hawaii.

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  16. I've always felt that change is necessary in order to grow inside ourselves. If we don't change, we become stale and stagnant and that leads to resentment within us.

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  17. Ah, Robin how wonderful to be valued and understood. It is a rare gift!
    You know me well and I am so touched by your including me in your A-Z.
    It's been such a fun surprise to see so many new visitors over at my site!
    While I'm a little surprised to see how many think the post you picked was mostly sad (I wasn't really sad, just reflective) I can understand there being an undercurrent of that.
    I will say that having met a woman recently who bubbles over with happiness that she shares with everyone she meets, and yet there is something sad about her- that I found out was that she lost a son in a car wreck 16 years ago, I can say that if I have a little sadness underneath then it doesn't have to keep me from being happy, it just makes me interesting.

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  18. It's funny-I have lived in the home I own for 19 years, but still only feel a strong affinity towards my childhood home-it was so weird when my parents sold it.

    This post made me think of that.

    Larry

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  19. Change can be one of the scariest and also most rewarding things we do. Great post.

    Brandon Ax: Writer's Storm

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  20. I'm already feeling sad for mom elderly mom. She loves her house soo much, though, I'm afraid when I have to help her say good-bye. Moving on can be good emotionally and sometimes very disheartening...

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  21. Everyone ~ I find all of your comments very interesting. This topic has generated a lot of reflection for many of you. I think we can all relate to the changes that accompany moving. And some of you are now following Jasmine... yay!

    Jasmine ~ You are a delight. I have enjoyed getting to know you so much (on here and in person) and I am so happy for you that this move is taking place. I agree...all of the things that have happened to you - the joy and the sadness - all make you interesting. And inspiring! I know you inspire ME.

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  22. This touches way down. I hope the change brings much warmth and joy.

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  23. Beautiful! I loved how the echoes were book ended in the piece by Jasmine.

    And I love your theme. So generous. :)

    Happy atoz!
    readavaquinn.blogspot.com

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  24. And now as Jasmine slowly inches her way to Texas, her next stop is California. Good luck to her and the best happiness. She is a wonderful person and i love following her blog.

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  25. Wonderful post! I'll definitely check out Jasmine's blog. I love her writing :) She's very right: many times, we aren't born "home". We have to find it and make our way there. I think that's a big part of this journey called life. My husband and I are in a similar place. We're hoping to make our move HOME very, very soon!

    Cheers!
    Jen

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  26. WOW....

    Jasmine echoes my feeling exactly! I am SOOOO ready to leave and start my new life too!

    I hope she and her husband have found there new place, but from your intro, Robin, Jasmine seems to be still in her home....

    I wish her all the best in acquiring her new home, adventure, and life....

    I

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