(A blog from earlier this year that was never posted.. Update on the house mentioned - that Erin and I went to show - sold/closed aprox a month ago.)



I have the house listed next door..

It's raining today.

Erin and I were putting on rain boots, going to show the house to someone we know.

We were laughing..  and then she said "you're my best friend!"

Instantly my mind went back in time...  like a time warp scene on tv.

It's funny how she can say something so off the cuff and I can be very aware that my response may get trapped in her memory for decades to come...

IN THAT INSTANT -- I thought about how I had told my Mom that same thing on several different occasions..  I thought about her responses.  Sometimes she wanted to be my Mom -- not necessarily my best friend...

I responded to Erin without giving away the entire thought process I'd just gone thru in my mind..

"You're gonna have lots of friends over the years" I said, "And I promise to always be here when you need me!"

And then I put my arm around her and we walked next door.

In addition to that tiny, non memorable sentence - what I meant was...

Erin, you are my daughter. God has charged me with your upbringing.

You are my life.

I am honored beyond belief that He entrusted you to me.

I breathe a sigh of relief every night when I know you're peacefully asleep.

I never want to spend a day without you.

I'm humbled that you would call me you're best friend ...and I hope you always will.

big stuff.. hard stuff.. other people's stuff.. but I saw it or heard it ..and now it's my stuff...

I have a really crappy house for sale and it's really crappy.. I mean crap overload.

I showed it twice today and each time the potential buyer and I found ourselves walking outside and simultaneously wiping our feet in the snow.. to clean off the actual crap we walked thru INSIDE the house.  

(Both of those people made an offer on this place.)

There is a little boy that lives there.  He's 3.  The second time I was there he was running around the living room.. which I thought was fine.. but he got in trouble for it.. and by that I mean smacked with a belt right in front of me.

He cried but not for long.  While my client was talking to his grandpa he pointed to a picture above the door.  It was a picture of a lighthouse.  I said "I know a song about a lighthouse." 

I sang it to him (while my client and his grandpa were talking next to us) and I told him it was about Jesus.  Maybe one day if he hangs on to this memory (and I have no idea that he will) he will remember a woman singing some crazy song in his apartment about a lighthouse and telling him it was about Jesus.

I can't stop thinking about him...

I listed a house a few years ago for a man that told me horrible stories about his childhood.  His childhood that happened right there in that house. 

Sometimes we don't sell sweet homes with sweet stories.. 

But it was such a pleasure to help THAT man sell THAT house and say GOOD-BYE to it ...on the day I took this picture.

Be nice to people.. you don't know what they've gone thru... and sometimes you don't want to...

My Lighthouse by Rend Collective:  (great song!) http://youtu.be/JPtIv2lnkTY