8 months… I’m not sure where the time has gone.
8 months ago it was June and the cicadas were reaching the peak of their song, and we decided to trek to a little known city outside of Dallas to pick up our future home.
Now, and in parts thanks to that journey, I’m sitting at my desk with wedding contracts and notes overflowing. The irony is, that despite how I like to keep things minimal these days (except for my piles of books, of course), is that I’ve unintentionally managed to juggle wedding planning, Airstream renovating and career changes simultaneously. I desperately wanted to journal more of this process, but I’ve found my time consumed by tiny black holes of paperwork, measurements and planning.
While the renovation pulls at my ever-waning energy, it also gives back. I power through most days the best I can, but when I get a chance to make the 20 minute drive to the Airstream it plants my feet back on the ground.
My day-to-day is a storm of learning a whole new job, applying for dream jobs, keeping my wedding vendors on track, ordering decorations, balancing budgets…. all these ifs and whens and soon-to-bes….and then I drive through the gate to the property and the Airstream is the first thing I see, shining like a mirage of hope in the desert.
But it isn’t a mirage, it is our budding oasis.
We haven’t had an oasis to call our own in a really, really long time, if ever. Mason and I started dating while I was in high school and while we were both blessed with supportive households, we quickly became each other’s solid ground. Our oasis became weekends spent swimming, kayaking, and canoeing the Guadalupe river and star-gazing in the bed of a pick-up truck at night.
In college, we lived in a perpetual cycle of a new roommate every semester. We had an apartment to ourselves for all of 3 months before we moved back to our hometown.
And so we came full circle back to where we started.
We are BEYOND grateful for the support our parents give, and continue to give, every step we’ve taken on this road together. But for eight years, we’ve never really belonged anywhere. We’ve lived in borrowed space.
But, now..
Now we have this mobile, aluminum bean that we belong to. We’ve cleaned and scrubbed, primed and painted, built and broken, and reclaimed a home. We’ve placed our dreams in its cabinets and floors, in the fresh counter and dining/bed, and especially in every little, hard-to-reach corner.
In life, it’s not often you find something to place your dreams in for safe keeping, and even less often another person. But, I have now been blessed with both of those things. It is in this roaming tin can that I will navigate through life, with my best friend by my side at the helm.
This is the reminder that I need to come back to when things get hard. When life tries to keep whisking me into the future, this place and this person keeps me grounded in the present.
An important reminder that you can build a life and live in it, too.
And yes, best friend, this post is dedicated to you. Just 19 more days till “I do”♥
Simply & Softly 