I am sitting here in the darkness of my home office, perfectly still and shaking my head in slow mo. How did seven years go by so fast? Okay, I’m not – technically – sitting perfectly still since my fingers are flying on the keyboard… trying desperately to keep up with my racing thoughts.
Seven years of hitting ‘publish’ and hoping that someone will read, enjoy, and learn a thing or two as I learn a thing or two.
As I scrolled through thousands and thousands of my iPhotos pictures, trying to find just-the-right-one to accompany this post, my gaze lingered on this pile of firewood that Dennis and I split (thank you gas-powered log splitter) years ago.
It visually-describes EXACTLY how I feel about nwafoodie turning seven.
I remember the enthusiasm I felt – mixed with nervousness – when the tree company arrived and removed seventeen massive and severely diseased trees from our woodsy front yard. I knew they had to go in order for the others to survive. One by one they fell and the crew trimmed up the branches and left the timbers for us to manage. Weekend after weekend and night after night and months after months Dennis and I kept working at the huge pile until finally all that was left was neatly stacked rows of green firewood and bark-debris to haul away. Our future fuel would be there, waiting for us. All we had to do was let it mature.
That is how nwafoodie has been for me.
There have been bouts of enthusiasm, energy, and over-zealous posting. Also months of sitting there, not doing much other than waiting for the time to fire it up again. There were times where I keep the coals going strong and did not let the fire die out. And, because of the abundance overload of our woodpile, oftentimes it has been a source of fuel for friends and families at the occasional bonfire or when someone hasn’t had the means to gather their own firewood.
Lately it’s been cold, waiting, begging, and urging me to stir things up.
But let me tell you this………… every single day that I drive down my driveway and I see that magnificent pile of stacked firewood………. It fills me with happiness, pride, and eagerness so severe that it literally kills me that I have not been able to post often the past months.
Yet.
I know it is there. Waiting patiently for me to come back, pick up a log, and stir up the coals once again.
Thank you for patiently sticking with me.
It’s been a grateful seven years…. and I am looking forward to the next seven (and then some).
Thank you, my friends.
Lyndi
