Falling in Love

In Blink, Malcom Gladwell shows you that we have a second set of skills we are not aware of; skills that allow us to instantly choose and decide what we like, what is best for us.  These skills are not consciously available; they work best in those blink decisions. When we fall in love, that's what happens.

And that's how we ended up in Port Orford.

We were coming up one late afternoon from the South, on that red highway.  The highway had been shrouded in fog, most of the way.  When we came to that curve of the road, we saw the town's lights, resplendent, clear and brilliant against the rest of the world. 

It was a Brigadoon Moment.

We stopped for the night at The Castaway Motel, up on a ridge overlooking the port. Late in the night, the port kept working hoisting boats up and down the dry dock. We sat and watched for hours. The next morning, we drove to a real estate office and asked to see anything with a view of the water.

The first house we saw was on the lake, on a peninsula facing the Ocean. While hubby looked inside the house, I walked down to the waterfront. From that spot, I could see clear out to Qua-to-Ma Rock, the old man's face lying on the water  told me I had arrived to my final destination.

With tears in my eyes, I walked backed up to the house.

"Let's buy this place!" I said.
"Don't you want to see the inside?" Hubby responded.
"I've seen enough. This is for us."

Seven years later, after we replaced the roof, the flooring, the kitchen, the siding, after we added a sunroom, a French garden, a well, after sinking a good amount of money, we are in love with this place as much as we were on that first day.

Hubby is a scientist by training. He agrees that there was  much to love about this place, and all its negatives could not have dissuaded us.

Thanks Mr. Gladwell for explaining this behavior.