Peaceful Week day one ended peacefully and interestingly.

Maria and I walked through a part of our town that we’d never walked through before, and I did a Photo Journal of some of the fantastic Victorian architecture that is all over our city and that we take for granted.

I read a lot and soaked up some solitude. It was sweet.

Army Of Good Note: I got a boxload of underwear, bras, socks, and gloves for some of the new Mansion residents. I’ll bring it over tomorrow. Thanks to the people who sent some bookcases to Bishop Gibbons, Teacher Tricia White found a school that closed recently and has a slew of bookcases they are giving to Bishop Gibbons for free. Sue Silverstein says she now has enough stuffing material, thanks. She can always use more down the road. Thanks again for buying out the Mitten Tree Amazon Mansion Wish List So Quickly.

After our walk, we went to the Shift Wood Fired and Salad wagon that has found a permanent home by the brewery that occupies our beautiful and long-retired train station. (By the way, I highly recommend a YouTube Video Performance by the Ukulele Orchestra in Great Britain called “I’m Just A Teenage Dirtbag Baby,” it had me laughing all day and made me love the idea of the Ukulele all the more. I will learn to play this instrument.)

(St. Luke’s Church)

We got a wonderful sense of life in this once booming town, now a rebounding village with all kinds of exciting things happening.

We went for the “Pizza Of The Week,” which was incredible. The food situation here is really looking up.

It marks the new location for Shift, a hip and modern food wagon we already love. (above, Maria is getting our pizza and salad from Sara McMillan.

The week’s pizza was thin dough, fresh and wood-fired, with Ricotta, Cranberries, Caramelized Onions, Pecans, Goat Cheese, and Asiago Blend. Woe was plentiful, tasty, and light as a feather – no grease or heavy cheese. The soup of the week was vegan Thai Sweet Potato Soup. Things are changing.

I’ve already learned something from Day One of our Peaceful Thanksgiving Week.

(The Rice Mansion)

I don’t have a clear sense of identity in my own house. Most of the time, when I’m in the farmhouse, I’m in my office, writing or putting up photographs. I work all the time.

I’ve passed many farm chores to Maria, and I can’t go out any longer in oppressive heat, icy snow, or bitter cold. When I’m in the farmhouse, I write or read almost most of the time, mostly write.

I need to expand and broaden my sense of myself. I want to keep on growing.

Tomorrow I’m returning to painting watercolors in the afternoon light, something I often did but have drifted away from. I’ve got the itch. I’m also stepping up my Ukelele practice. Time to put up or shut up.

I aim to take good photographs and write meaningfully on my blog every day until I die, but I also want to do more than that before I die. I see this is an excellent window of opportunity, and I need to see it and embrace it. I don’t want to be one thing; I want to be many things.

(There are plenty of free spirits in our town. One of them lives in this house.)

This week, I’m resolved to quiet down, rest, think, read as well as blog and take pictures. I was at a loss when I first sat down with a good book in the bright sun coming through the window.

Maria tends to take care of the outside part of the farm, feeding the animals, giving them water, checking on them, the chickens and counting the sheep.

I go outside two or three times a day, but I need to re-think my connection with the farmhouse; in many ways, I’m a stranger to much of it. That’s what happens when you never stop working.

( A consignment shop, beautifully restored on Main Street.

I never intend to give up working, but it’s good to stop occasionally. I hope to ease up this week, do some feeling and thinking, and step back to look at my life.

I’m no artist, but I do love to paint. Perhaps I’ll share a painting or two tomorrow.

Maria and I  realized recently that in the years we’d lived here, there are many beautiful houses and streets in the town that we’ve never walked on or seen.

(The town’s once bustling railroad station, restored and now a brewery, busy almost every night.)

We’ve driven by the beautiful Cambridge Historical Society but never gone in. We will stop in soon to learn more about our town’s history. Any town with a functioning Historical Society is work a walk-a-around, and more than once.

Tomorrow is day two of Peaceful  Week. We’ve been invited over to a friend’s house for dinner. Otherwise, we have nowhere to go and nothing to do. I will take my daily walk-about photos on the farm or somewhere nearby.

Maybe a country road dotted with farms. I’m deep into a good mystery. I appreciate my meditation time. Something will come of it.