Today I received an e-mail from my brother ……
Hey sis – nice pictures it always amazes me how much of a mother you are. Where you get the energy I’m not sure.
Okay t- this bring me to my question...
Between you and Greg – which one wanted to move to the country?
How did you come to terms with that decision?
At first you both lived in the city right? In the apartment in Paris. Then you guys bought the house.
Whose idea was it to look for a house out in the middle of nowhere?
Who did the research?
Was it a team thing or one of the 2 of you?
Anyhow – I wanted to know.
I’m craving to be outside the city – in the openness.
I need nature in my life desperately. I just have to get Natasha on the same wavelength as me. And if I can’t then I’m just going to turn into an asshole. Nature’s call is that strong.
Send my love to the kids-
Your bro
_d
Well first, I don’t know where I get the energy, but thank goodness I get it, it must be hereditary, just look at how strong mom is…
To answer you questions, in your mind, whom do you think wanted to move to the country?
You know I think it’s only natural that you have these feelings, we grew up in big houses all our lives, with huge gardens and in the woods…nature always surrounded us weather we noticed it at times or not….Then we went of to schools with great campuses specially you and Gus , I was mostly surrounded by housing projects and kids with no future….but that’s another story….And me personally I loved all that energy and thrived on it at that period of my life….Yosh… New York there was nothing else like it at that time of my life, except to one day live in Paris the most beautiful city in the world….and I still think that….
I finally got the courage and decided to make a go for it…I must have been searching for pain and solitude…well thank god love kept me going because if it were for the friendly French it’s a long time ago I would of hung up my French beret….
Paris was so beautiful, I could believe I lived in such an amazing place, surrounded by so much history and culture. We also had a great apartment and paid a great deal of money for it, then Chloe was born, and even though Paris still seemed to be great, the country side of Paris seemed even greater….I had been outside of Paris many times, to Versailles, Saint Germain-en-Laye, Fontainebleau, Chantilly, Deauville, gosh I could go on the list is so long, What I realized very quickly is that the minute you left Paris the Peripheric (the highway that surrounds Paris) well it’s all farm land….Green, Green and super Green…I could picture Chloe outside in her own yard playing with her own doggie, and me working in the garden, summer nights with long candle light dinners, smoking cigarettes as the huge white moon would be shinning over our property, smelling the morning dawn, running out side and making snowflakes when it would snow, oh I could smell the fire from the chimney we would own ….
That’s it. It was time to move on….
Find a place out in the country, give me green, give me air and give me space…Paris will always be there….but I changed, I was growing into something else, something that I was looking forward in exploring, and I wasn’t afraid….I just had to make Greg understand this change that was occurring inside me and either he changed with me or it was going to be a bit of a bumpy ride for us….once he understood that change was not something definite but something different, that we could both grow from and that if it didn’t work out , well Paris was not to far away , we could always go back. It’s ok to change; it shows we’re growing. So don’t be afraid….
Today, we wouldn’t give anything back for the life we have today. Everyday I discover a new places in my own small village, wood walks that I never dared before to take, and when I’m there walking I tell myself gosh I’m glad I changed….
Many times I have dreams of the Farm dad used to own in Argentina, all those fields, gold fields I would tell him, they would go on and on as far as your eyes could see, I often dream that one day I’ll own some fields and have all those feelings again….
But for now I’ll settle for the fields that surround me and for the farmers work I admire….as far as my Grego goes well it’s been ten years now, and from time to time he’ll complain about the commute, but when he gets home and hangs his coat he is in another place , a place we wouldn’t give up….
The west side of the outsides of Paris always had great reputation, money, good schools, famous people moving out there, so when we finally decided, we went west….a good investment we figured, at least that…What I wanted for sure was a super old house, so we bought all these fancy magazines showing the most splendorous homes…
One agency kept coming up with houses that really caught our eyes, we called and
gave them a full description of what we were looking for how far from Paris, how big, materials etc that we liked, and sure enough they had several things we may like…excitedly we booked a weekend with them and of to the country we went….
That day she showed us ‘’La Havienda Azul’’, the first house we visited out of 10 planned that day…for me it was love at first sight, I couldn’t believe it, this was it, gosh was it the way I listed everything I wanted in a house, was this agency really this good, or was it a miracle…soon Greg broke what ever of a miracle that was by saying relax, we still have some more houses to see….No, you see this is the one….It was perfect, I had live in so many places before, that I could totally see potential and the new face lift I would be giving it with time, I was ready to make out the check right then and there…We went on to see the rest of the houses that were planned for us that day, but of course nothing came close to Haciazul, and by the end of the week I won and we sighed for Haciazul….Slowly it’s come a long way, as we’ve live it, it lives with us…It’s cozy, and homey, it’s live able and child free, it has become us over all these years…we are all quite attached to it specially the children…
I have put so much love into this house, I see myself having a very hard time to ever part from it, it has it’s faults here and there but we still love it, and maybe one day it will be perfect, but for now it will do just fine….
Oct 2, 2006, Gregory called me static, said to me ‘’do you know what day is today?’’ ‘’Yea’’, I said, ‘’It’s Moday, and the kids have their school picture’’….’’no’’…’’no’’ ‘’what?’’ ‘’Today it’s ours…La Haciaenda Azul is ours’’….he didn’t know but tears filled my eyes, I never thought we would own some thing so big…..and in France of all places….A house with a name…I’ve moved so many times in my life before, loaded up cars full of boxes, gone up and down stairs with stuff, so much stuff, to a new door where a new key would fit, and to move every time was like walking away from a cluster of memories and to buy is to choose where the future will take place…So you see times fly’s by and before you know it your living in the future….
I hope this has answered your questions, but most of all I hope you realize that only you have the key to your future….
I love you brother and will always be here for you….so if nature is calling don’t be an as whole, just come take a long walk with me….
Love
Your sister
