Today I am thinking a lot about front doors. I'm not at home and have to blog from my phone so this is coming in installments.
Door #1 - my door.
These pics were taken in 2010, by my friend Sonja (
www.mikiandsonja.com). We had just lost Ace a week or so before, so though you may not see it, I see the exhaustion and struggle on my face. It's a lot like where I have been recently.
Regardless, you can also see my front door, which I LOVE. It's one of the reasons we bought this house. It's beautiful. And after we were robbed and needed to secure ourselves a little better, we added in the gorgeous wrought iron - which actually makes me super happy too. I worked hard with a guy named Jose to design a set of "bars" that would add to our home rather than detract.
The reason I got to thinking about my front door though today is this: somehow there is almost never a day where I don't find someone I like or love standing on my porch knocking on my door to come in. Yes, this is L.A. It's not the Midwest. But somehow my friends know that they are welcome to drop by. Even when my house is almost never clean (it is today because it's the one day a month that we have a housekeeper come!), there's always something going on, I'm ALWAYS in the middle of something, there's always a bit of chaos... My friends seem to know that they can drop by, get a cup of coffee or a cold Coke, and I will be happy to have them.
When we first walked through this house when we were buying it, we were looking at moving out of a dreary dark condo where we had been living. I remember imagining what life would be like in this house, with all its windows and it's big welcoming porch. Back then, with 2 small babies, it seemed really big. I remember thinking, "it will be so nice and big!" and then, it was as if I suddenly knew in that moment, ...almost as if someone had whispered it to me... I knew this: "it will never be empty. You will always have people coming in and going out."
And I absorbed and accepted that thought with joy.
And somehow my friends and neighbors have, too. Whether its funny exchanges and dropoffs with my local moms club gals, or my carpool buddies staying long to chat. Sometimes my across the street neighbor (hi, Chrissy!) pops over and stays for hours. Once recently she came - needing cinnamon while baking - and her hubby had to come fetch her to remind her she was cooking at home! My pal, Nicole, has hitched a ride to my door with the mailman (barefoot) when she got locked out of her house around the corner. There was about a year of Friday nights where we had pasta night every Friday and anyone could come. We used to have lots of parties before these past few years of foster care- maybe when I'm not quite so tired and wary of big groups, we can start doing that again. Until then though, I'm here. With hot coffee and cold Cokes. And there's usually some candy or cookies I could dig up too.
It's good. I don't think I've ever officially said, "come drop by my front door unannounced", but somehow, my friends know that they know I'll be happy to see them. Maybe not wearing a Libby Dibby skirt, but happy nonetheless.
