And time is just sliding by in that quiet humming way that it does. Summer subtly dropped into fall and already winter is upon us. We light fires at night to warm the house and boil water for tea. The sun tucks away early so we hole up inside and read and watch movies and curl our bodies around one and another. Zelda walks around lazily, purring, stretching, thoroughly enjoying what winter has brought her…us, indoors, couch potatoes.

We’ve been in Washington for eight months now. Eight months. We shut the door on our wild youthful lives in Los Angeles and traded it in for a different kind of wild. We’ve grown closer to the animals that we are. We work very hard; in the sun, in the rain, and now in the snow. We laugh and dream wild dreams at night. We have battled forest fires and mice. We have moved from couch to a three bedroom, to a tent in the woods and then into a leaky, mousy camper and finally into an old and beautiful log hewn cabin. It has been a journey.

We’ve battled each other. We’ve missed our old life. We’ve wanted sushi at 11pm. We’ve wanted our friends. We’ve wanted our old rituals.

We’ve fallen in love all over again as we surprise each other with our strength. We’ve fallen in love with our new life—with the mountains and the green scent in the air. We’ve made new traditions.

Neighbors bring us firewood and squash. We are given home canned jams and salsas. My family surrounds us and they stop by to have dinner or help out with one of our many moves. They make us smile. They give me a hard time—and they hug me tight. We have been shown so much love.

We eat from gardens and the rivers that finger thru these mountains. We warm ourselves from trees. We’ve gotten to swim in the lake and eat snow from the sky.

This is what I wanted all along. This is what we needed.

We’ve built this new life for ourselves. With our hands. With our hearts.

It’s been eight months and it’s really just the beginning….