Anchoring My Roots

I miss you! Let me catch you up on things.

In recent years as I imagined where I’d truly anchor my roots, California has not been the final answer. As beautiful as the weather is, I’ve always known I would settle down elsewhere. Well, I did it! After 20.5 years in Los Angeles, I packed up and moved back to the East Coast.

This move wasn’t planned, per se, but 2020 proved to be a strong catalyst for all sorts of changes for many of us huh? Well, I can add a coast to coast move to my list. The final straw was when the Los Angeles school district confirmed that all learning would be remote. With that news, there was officially no reason for me to stay. The consistency of my daughter’s schooling was the main thing keeping me there. COVID fixed that. I already work remotely. Now school was gonna be remote too? We can do this from anywhere!

In less than 60 days I decided, planned, packed, then shipped everything including my car, and moved back to Philadelphia into my parent’s home… for now.

My parents have lived in this home for 45 years. This place holds all my childhood memories. I’m super pumped to be here with them after being away with only short visits for so many years.

I arrived, exhaled, and I finally thought I’d get some rest after such a big move but nope, no rest! 2 days after arriving in Philadelphia, the garage of our family home went up in flames. EVERYONE is fine, thank God, however, the garage was a total loss.

This was one of the scariest events I’ve experienced. We were all home; mom, dad, kid, the dog and me. It was approximately 11:40 pm when we discovered the garage was on fire. And it wasn’t a small fire either, the whole structure was fully engulfed. My father is a retired firefighter so of course his recollection is that he was the only one calm and the rest of us ran around in a panic. While that might be slightly true (LOL), in my retelling I was also calm. I called 911 and thank God the firefighters arrived very quickly.

Mom, had driven and parked her car across the street and taken the kid and the dog with her. No doubt Mom was praying. Dad hung back to relive his firefighting days and stayed as close to the fire as they would allow. I paced the front sidewalk and also prayed. I prayed that the fire be contained to the garage and not spread to the main home.

God delivered on that prayer. Other than smoke and some melted siding, the main home structure was unharmed. I’m soooo grateful. Everything in the garage was destroyed by fire, but those things can be replaced.

The following days and weeks would be filled with meetings, calls, appointments, and walkthroughs. There was a whole lot to do to get things back to normal; complete with a 10-day hotel stay for the whole family (including the dog), while work was done at the house.

My parents are completely capable of handling all of this business themselves but let me tell you, it was my honor to be here to help them. In a strange way, this event confirmed not only that I am right where I’m supposed to be, but that the timing of my arrival was also precise.

Everything has almost returned to normal now, which means I can get back to, well, to everything!

I’m super happy to be in Philadelphia. While this will probably not be my final anchoring place, my soul is happy. I truly did everything I wanted to do in Los Angeles. There were good days, tough days, plenty of feast days, and a bit of famine. Los Angeles was a fantastic chapter that shaped me for this next season. I grew. I learned. I’m wiser. I’m so much better. GRATEFUL!