Chicken art by Lynn Elam Bonge
Sue and I feel like we have been blessed by good fortune our entire lives. Our priorities have been consistent and simpatico since the earliest days of our relationship. They have manifested in remarkably good health, personal happiness, spiritual wellness and fulfillment, and a beautiful extended family. Each of whom have experienced abundant blessings similar to those we have experienced throughout our marriage.
Sue and I are now entering a new chapter in our lives and relationship. We recently chose to sell our big house in Weston, which anchored and has harbored so many of our memories. The house included a cottage on the property where Sue’s mom and dad experienced their elder years. They often shared with us their journey and insight, some of which helped to inform our relationship by sharing their experience and wisdom. That house helped us to raise and shelter our kids while they got their adult legs solidly beneath themselves. And, finally the house provided security and space for our grandchildren, who unfailingly entertained us in a way that only grandchildren are able to do!
Choosing to move and dramatically downsizing was a considered and lengthy process which ultimately proved to be both chaotic and traumatic. Beside the emotional challenge of marketing and selling our home, the physical effort of packing, disposing, donating, and choosing what to keep or not to keep and how to deal with the remainder proved to be a near breaking point of stress.
Once our house finally sold the closing was set in the near future. We quickly and gratefully accepted an extremely generous offer from a close friend who was able to accommodate our housing needs on short notice in a nearby community. Unfortunately, the circumstances of our occupancy on the property ultimately did not represent a long term solution. And so we chose to move again within just a few months of initially moving in. The physical demands and emotional stress after such a short duration between moves proved to be almost impossibly stressful.
Yet, once again, as has so often manifested in our lives, in a moment of extreme need a couple of angels showed themselves to Susan and I! This time disguised as two real estate agents. Actually they were the agents whom we already knew intimately, because they were the very same Angels that had sold our big house for us only a few months earlier!
And so, in a rental market bereft of choices, and almost no time to look, our angel agents found for us…..the Chicken Street House. The Chicken Street house is located on a nearly private 10 acre piece of property in Connecticut between the centers of Georgetown and Wilton in Fairfield County. The land has a significant and historic story (learn something about how Chicken St. got its name below*). The current owner traces her lineage to ancestors who landed at Plymouth rock on the Mayflower! It is quiet, peaceful and populated by beautiful trees and meadows. There are no street sounds but there are plenty of turkeys, deer, fox, and small animals that show themselves regularly and unafraid. The property feels literally like living in a snow globe. In other words, it was exactly what we needed in the moment we needed it.
Our life journey continues to humble and bless us, often seeming to be divinely guided. For now, my overwhelming emotion is gratitude for the unknowable source of love and guidance that continues to bless us.
With gratitude and love, Mickey
*Chicken Street was named for Chief Chicken, a prominent Native American who never actually lived in Wilton. Chickens Warrups, in some accounts referenced as Chicken Warrups or Sam Mohawk, was a Native American who lived in the southwestern part of Connecticut in the late 17th century and 18th century, at the time colonial settlers were establishing town governments, church parishes, and farms in the region. Warrups' name appears on multiple deeds awarding land to colonial settlers. He relocated to the area straddling the border of Connecticut and New York, and was captured by a tribe led by the Sachem Katonah (one of multiple spellings of that name referenced in historical documents). Warrups is thought to have married a daughter of Katonah and relocated to Fairfield, CT. There is dispute as to whether Warrups killed a Native American in Fairfield; he again moved, however, this time several miles north to land that would eventually be included as part of Redding, CT. There, Warrups established a village of Native Americans who had become displaced from other tribal units.