Too Good to Be True?

I don’t know about you, but these days I’m counting my blessings. The world is a scary place, and every day we make it through unscathed is a triumph. My niece is a student in Boston and could easily have been a participant or spectator at the Marathon on Monday. Thankfully, she wasn’t, but so many others had family and friends injured or killed that it’s impossible not to feel there but for the grace of God...

Meanwhile, OG and I are settling into paradise. Every day seems to bring another reminder of how lucky we’ve been throughout the whole process of uprooting our lives and relocating half-way across the country. So far, not a single thing that could have gone wrong has. How often does that happen? It can only be considered miraculous.

First came the sale of our Minnesota house for a very good price and without ever going on the market. Since the buyer was a remodeling contractor making the purchase on behalf of a client, we had none of the usual worries about condition. I didn’t even have to leave it particularly clean since the place was about to become a construction zone. When the sale closed on Monday and the money arrived by wire, we breathed a sigh of relief. (I think OG had been waiting for the other shoe to drop, but honestly, so many things have gone well that I’m almost starting to get used to it.)

We had perfect weather for our long drive to California, but as soon as we arrived a huge storm hit the very highways we’d just traversed. I-80 was closed through Wyoming, thirty inches of snow fell in Rapid City, and Sioux Falls declared a state of emergency. We could so easily have been stranded in the middle of that. I can’t even count the number of times it has snowed in Minnesota since we left three weeks ago. It’s as if nature is telling us we did the right thing.

Last week, I hired a small army of landscapers to clear the overgrown and dead trees and shrubs at the new house. When the dust settled, we discovered our view is even more gorgeous than we expected. As an added bonus, we received a booklet from the fire prevention association detailing the best ways to protect your property from wildfires and found we had inadvertently done all the right things.

Some days I have to pinch myself to believe how beautiful everything is here. I joined the local garden club, and the very next day joined them for a tour of several members’ private gardens. I’m sure I’ll never have anything as elaborate, but what a treat. How often do you get the chance to be served lunch on the terrace in an olive grove? Serendipity strikes again. I was so inspired I bought a dwarf orange and a dwarf Meyer lemon tree for our patio. I’ve never grown citrus, but I can’t wait to see how they do.

Whether you believe in divine intervention, karma, or just plain luck, sometimes things simply work out. We still have our huge remodeling project ahead of us, and it’s sure to bring complications and frustrations. But right now, life looks good from every angle, and that’s not always easy to accept.

What about you? Do you expect the best? Are you surprised when it happens?