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As I grow older---or younger as I'm sometimes accused of---I understand better the usefulness of contrast in our lives...the value of LIGHT after having been in the dark, the value of shelter after having lost a home, the value of a best friend after losing one, the value of RAIN after a drought and the renewed value of a dollar for the same reason in every season. Through the lens of contrast, I can, at one point, view LIFE as a complete loss---I will pretty much leave with most of what I arrived with---NOTHING...so, where is the value? Where is the equity, the unconditional love, the shelter, the return on investments, both financially and emotionally? WHERE IS LIFE kept anyway? Where does it RESIDE?? Where does it truly come to LIFE?
Sometimes we hear the phrase that something ‘takes on a life of its own'---much like real estate did this year. For some reason, hearing that phrase always stops my thinking/hearing in its tracks and my mind goes off on a tangent while the words of whoever is speaking become muted. I become perplexed at the mere notion of something in LIFE becoming detached or unrelated to the WHOLE of it---the endless panoramic that captures fleeting moments of our orbiting.
2008 turned out to be a year of dramatic contrast, epitomized in the presidential race, and historical 
statistics and LOSS in the shakedown of major banks and the stock market and, of course, the real estate industry. Like a drought, there's been a severe draining, drying up, critical mass of symbolic cancers in corporations, emptying of foundational resources, including many homes gone to foreclosure. As a REALTOR, this hits my heart like a ton of bricks and mortar, as I operate from the premise that every house can be a home...but it requires a family, a household, a dream of shelter and usually a financed mortgage. Everyone I know has been jolted and affected by the economic shifts of 2008. The Opelika-Auburn, AL area, where I live and work, has had some good press in recent years, spotlighting this University town as a most viable geographical area for new business growth and development. In anticipation of the surge, building and development went full speed ahead in most recent years, some more experienced and visionary than others who merely jumped on the building bandwagon. This past year, however, even the best of them---the cream of the crop---were severely hit by the refusal of banks to continue financing construction loans on their buildable lots. Now some banks are ready to work with these builders & developers again, but the damage has been done, and most are no longer available. So much came to a screeching halt...a standstill of silence. Some new homes under construction were burned down out of anger. Unkind words were overheard and thrown around town---it all seemed so misplaced. I felt a HUGE LOSS and heard the shattering of broken hearts and homes, families and dreams, especially for the builders and developers that I worked closely with since I began in this business just a few years ago...the ones that encouraged me and inspired my 
efforts. I was able to learn so much, first-hand, about building a house, developing land, having a vision---and a marketing plan. I grew to LOVE the land, the homes, the vision, the people who came along and saw the value of anchoring their dream of a home to one of these new houses. It was a world I came to live in and work in---and loved...and the one that came crashing down this year with foreclosures and Chapter 11. One particular development, THE COTSWOLDS, is particularly tragic to me, and I still cannot drive through the place without feeling a heaviness choke my spirit. Not so much for the loss of potential sales, but for the loss of a vision for Auburn that I believed was so inspired and even prophetic for a town like this---and now it remains to be seen. Some of the most beautiful homes I've ever walked through here in Auburn were built as spec homes at THE COTSWOLDS---and remain empty, surrounded by skepticism and poor judgment. The one I've done this video on is nearly 4000 sf and sits on a beautiful half-acre---with no family to make it a home. The subdivision is quiet now...hibernating...hopefully dreaming of renewal in the not too distant future...perhaps waking up to Buyers who can capture the essence of what this vision once was---they'll be able to see the intrinsic beauty of this land. My gut feeling is that in about 5 years, these homes will be happily inhabited and no one will remember this story. TODAY, however, the last day of 2008, I AM REMEMBERING the story of THE COTSWOLDS in Auburn, Alabama, and the at least 11 Chapters of Change that hit the real estate market in this county this year. It's occurred to me that I need to acknowledge the LOSS, the sadness, the heartache for these nearly abandoned homes and for the individuals and companies who designed and constructed them and had to let them go, along with their livlihood. It suddenly feels very important to me, that LETTING GO and SAYING GOODBYE to the way things were is a soulful requirement for embracing the landscape of 2009...a lot of wilderness. And so I put my offering on this cyber-covered table... offering up my grief for the LOSS of dreams this year, offering my heartfelt sympathy to the builders and developers whose lives & families were deeply affected by these changes. I offer my strength and best hopes for families who have been evicted or lost their homes and jobs.
While a musical requiem is traditionally calm, this one of words is a prayer that I offer for rest within the contrasts, for a place of peace between what has dearly departed in 2008 and what is upon us for 2009. Lux perpetua luceat eis, ie, let light perpetual shine upon you.
(THE COTSWOLDS landscape)
In requiem, the hymn that brings us to our soulful center and often to our knees, LIFE just never can be a complete loss or a complete gain, because so many aspects that we don't even see or understand are what make it WHOLE. It seems to be a lifelong study of contrasts. I trust this, knowing, at most, that I can only be an offering. LIFE is about letting go...it is a response and a requiem---and a reason for embracing another year, 2009. In contrast, LIFE, at its best, appears to be a WORK of heART, and LIFE, in its essence, appears to be a journey of SOUL magnitude. IT'S SO CLOSE TO HOME.
[CLICK HERE to view a DREAM HOME for sale at THE COTSWOLDS]
© Copyright of photos and content, 2008. Mara Hawks, All Rights Reserved
Active in Alabama, Mara Hawks, REALTOR with FIRST REALTY of Auburn, AL, #1 Real Estate Team in Lee County, THE LEADER in professional real estate services in Auburn, Opelika & Lee County for over 3 decades! Committed to INTEGRITY, KNOWLEDGE & SERVICE.
CLICK CART TO SHOP FOR HOMES IN AUBURN-OPELIKA, ALABAMA 
serve our highest ideals in the fight for freedom... to take a priceless moment to acknowledge and remember the men and women I've learned of, known of and some I've met here in Auburn, Alabama through my work as a REALTOR. What a privilege I have in America---to have such an opportunity to work and encounter so many incredible people along the way. Each one is a brilliant reflection of humanity's collective struggle to be free and to have a place to stand and understand... to know of HOME on earth. Today I especially salute the men and women who have participated in the action, to those who gave (and are still giving) of their own blood, sweat and tears to foster FREEDOM. Today I am especially thank-full, and pray that each spirit can soar. May every thought, every action and interaction take off from the fields of FREEDOM in your heart, guided by the Light that unveils texture from the terrain of your selfless souls. TO YOU, propelled from the heart of our country as your bodies and spirit lend a sacrifice and land us the dream--- TO BE FREE... and with our FREEDOM we ARE changed, 'from glory to glory'...from moment to moment... from soldier to soldier---each and every one... THANK YOU!
FOR YOU...May every moment and movement be directed to uplift the atmosphere around you today... may this prayer of f-LIGHT propel you and keep you IN-FORMATION, in the atmosphere of greatest LOVE and gratitude...
In support of The Food Bank of East Alabama, The Opelika-Auburn Newspaper staff teamed up with the WRBL News 3 group, Praise 88.7 and The Well, to sponsor a day-long food drive on Saturday, Nov 1st. The event was held at the Opelika Wal-Mart Supercenter. It opened up with Opelika Mayor, Gary Fuller, cutting a ribbon, marking the start of building community spirit and sponsorship for the drive that will be unceasing in its efforts to collect food for the fall and holiday season. This is the time of year when the supply of food begins to wane, and the Food Bank relies on our support for replenishing. Several of us volunteered to greet shoppers and distributed the shopping list of most needed items. A lot of shoppers participated, and it was heartwarming to see the efforts some of them made, no matter how small, all of the generous donations added up to a community gift for neighbors in need. When we share our resources, we provide essential nourishment and enrichment for the heart of our communities, blessing our homes and families. This day was big with blessings.
"I BAGGED HUNGER"
Volunteer, JR SMITH, Rotary Club
Volunteers, IWPU
Auburn Jr High School JAZZ BAND
That song won't leave my head this morning. It must be the singing alarm that is reminding me to turn my clocks back one hour tonight. Of course the task itself takes me nearly an hour, so I never quite feel the savings. In fact, I feel I lose a couple of hours, just trying to re-orient myself and adjust all my calendars and clocks. We always remark how the Summer Solstice (June 21st) is the longest day of the year-- although it's still only a 24-hour one. I would just have to argue that it's when we turn our clocks back, because we've just charted a 25-hour day. I've never understood why we try to turn the time back. It's literally impossible. The Native Americans understood the foolishness of this concept:
TGIF because I'll tune in once again to the 12-week Social Media & Marketing Webinar, hosted by DOMUS CONSULTING GROUP, moderated by founders 
out, illustrating how THE PUBLISHER is a website that produces content and a SUBSCRIBER is the reader of that content. Tools like FEED READERS (google reader, netvines & tons of others) provide a framework for ordering and organizing all of your subscriptions. This basically allows the media to arrive in your inbox, saving you a lot of time and effort and navigating around. It's all very cool, calm and collected---and did I mention FUN?!
FIRE.' My eyes wandered to the fireplace in the room that I took for granted all summer... FIRE, burned into my memory, emerged as a 
campfire of images...from birthday candles and roasting marshmallows to the smell of fear & wildfires that charged through mountain regions of places I'd lived---Southern California, South Africa and Colorado... ancient memories, somehow preserved, of black kettles over flames that fed thousands for centuries, sounds of welders and blacksmiths...the images spiraled to the dawn of Creation, flames of fire, forever striking the surface (chronos) of our existence and the depth (kairos) of our being...the firing of Light that sparks Soulfulness...that carries kindling from heart to heart,
Finally! A HAPPY HEADLINE is found in this morning's news, coming out of my hometown of heroes--- CHICAGO! A great town with 2 great baseball teams (although only one of them ever actually wins), a wonderful stock of humanity, excellent leadership (I'm recollecting the decades of Mayor Daley Sr and currently, his son), culturally diverse and architecturally rich, and NOW, today, a sheiff, TOM DART from Albany, IL has taken a historical stand, I believe, as he is refusing to foreclose on 4700 properties, bringing to the forefront the underlying problem of too many rent-paying tenants and their non-mortgage paying landlords. He was quoted as saying "We won't be doing the banks' work for them anymore...we won't surprise tenants with an eviction order intended for their landlord." Well, the banks may have something to do after all, these days, since they don't seem to be in the lending business at the moment. And while they're at it, maybe they can start doing some fundraising to reimburse city governments that have had to respond to discontented neighbors to clean up their neighborhoods, overgrown and 
aesthetically disturbed by empty homes. Seems like it's our tax dollars going out to protect the bank's accumulating assets while they sit on their, well, whatevers. Read 
tree community survive, much less begin to grow again? I just heard about the massive assistance being given to huge banking companies like AIG, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. I just heard the news of how banks worldwide are now pumping money back into the economy like a huge wave--- of over 200 billion. Evidently, the fear in the economy is contagious and has now spread throughout the world. But, what about mortgages? What about this infrastructure close to the root system that supports the bigger branches of the economy? Is this a right move in the wrong direction? If HOMEOWNERS can't be helped, how can the system strengthen its roots and restore balance overall? Is this a right answer for the wrong problem?? It seems that, until home sales can begin to turn around, the branches of banks, insurance companies and brokerage firms will not find any leverage or begin to recover. If the root system is weakening and dissolving, how will anything that stems from it remain in place or GROW again? 
Katie Evans from Greenville, NC blogged about musical chairs this morning. Thanks, 
, thankfully, have succeeded in somewhat sorting them out over the years...sifting through all the debris to find the single treasures of those moments, the single pearl of goodness that was knotted into the strand of my childhood journey that, as a kid, we can experience as a choking of the spirit.
REALITY is, sometimes we do lose out, whether it be a hurricane, a job promotion, a date with your biggest crush (will George C. ever call me?), your favorite restaurant being fully booked, even though it's your birthday... the overnight line at the Apple store is cut off after the person in front of you---SOLD OUT! I guess there really are so many times we are playing a musical chairs of sorts. The willingness to let go can be a gift of wisdom. Everyone can't have everything. (Where would you even put it all?) 
SOCIAL NETWORKING. We are LIVING THE PHENOMENON..the manifesto of ‘space expansion' (one of the final concepts that Albert Einstein wrote about in his journal---if he were here today, I'm sure he would have blogged about it.) NO ONE is left standing or without a place. It's music to my ears, so pull up a chair. 
