Thursday, July 20, 2006

Bluebird Cove 10: Letting Go Of River Trails

My heart was broken and I knew I had to detach myself from the project, but there was still so much to be done. The house had just been framed up and most of the detailed work was yet to be done. We had informed the builder we would not be moving in and since he was discouraged about the whole project, it was agreed that we would take over the sub-contracting and finish the project ourselves. He was kind enough to provide us with some names of people to work with.

We had this huge task before us with no rewards on the horizon for accomplishing it. The property was an hour away so any time we had to meet somebody there, it was two hours just for driving. It was going to be a long road to get this out of our faces and I was not of much help. I visited the place after all the distruction and at that point decided that I couldn't live there. Randal had no objections since the home had changed so much from what we had designed.

Randal managed the project as best he could while we both kept working at our business. A lot of that time period is foggy to me now. I was so saddened by the event and I knew it would not be easy to begin again after the horror of what happened at River Trails. It had taken a year and a half to find the land and over a year to build the house. It only took four months to sell it and the buyer was a young musician who was soon to have a bride. He would use the porch to write music and got our permission to use it even before we closed. There was some comfort that the beauty and views and the home would be used to create music.

I concentrated my energies on developing Bluebird Cove and we had more and more neighbors moving in nearby so we began to sink some roots into Lake Monticello, but they seemed to be shallow roots for both of us.

Within my heart was the longing for what had slipped through our hands. I became addicted to the real estate magazines hoping each week to find the place that we had moved to Virginia for, but never to find it ..... and possibly never to really know what it would look like.

They had cleared some of the woods behind us to build on to the shopping center. We could now see bright lights in the windows at night during the six months of the year we were without leaves on the trees. The parking lot noise with trucks and loud music from cars wasn't the only thing that bothered us. The bright stars and dark skies were no longer the same since light pollution had affected our views.

Our minds have been blurred by all these circumstances and the special friends we've made here, and the difference we are making for wildlife at least on our one acre of land. We were totally confused on what to do about our original dream that propelled us from Alabama to Virginia.

In the interim, we had battled a development that was to go in nearby behind us on most of that 40 acres of woods. The guy developing it was the same one who said it would never be developed. Matter of fact, he already had plans and various approvals for it before he even told the people buying his homes on this street that it would never be developed. That got our neighborhood together to try to fight the project with many meetings at the courthouse and after many months, Nahor Village was approved for retirement homes and buildings along with an assisted living center.

The project broke ground a few months ago and we are now entertained with the beep-beep of the equipment and the horrible sounds of trees falling to the ground. Since it's along a main highway, there is nothing keeping them from beginning at 6 AM, so there is little solace available on our porches these days.

We are blessed that there are two pieces of land, each under seven acres, behind us that is between us and Nahor Village. The one piece comes up to the rear of our neighbor's house and has a home on it. The other lot comes to the rear of our home and it's for sale. Since it's long and narrow and is zoned agricultural, it hasn't sold in the year that the sign has been on it. Of course, we are so grateful, but we can't help but wonder how long that will remain without development.

The lessons I'm learning at Bluebird Cove are many and if you have been a subscriber to "A Healing Moment" that I write, you will know that God has taught us much as we choose to follow Him and set our hearts on things above that are lasting and not on what will all burn up in the end.

God is faithful and all of these events have taught me that we have a choice to choose peace and joy in the Lord, or restless discontentment in the world. I have slipped into ruts now and then as I choose to not let my joy be determined by where I live .... but God is always there if I choose to focus and meditate on His Word and remind myself that where I live is not who I am and it's not the priority of my life. God promises to guide us.

We have continued to develop more and more habitat and gardening has been a great solace to me as I see the character and beauty of our Lord in His Creation. The more attached to Bluebird Cove, this one acre of land, that I become, the harder it is for me to actually consider leaving..... but there is still something within me that says, "This isn't forever."

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