I’m feeling like the “Prodigal Son,” after being displaced for months during our home “redesign” this summer. It wasn’t planned, it was a necessity, and it nearly cost me my life.

We spent the summer, chasing happiness and retreating from an unbelievable nightmare, while I visited 10 ER’s related to the toxic conditions we had unknowingly purchased and moved into in March of this year.

We visited Mexico and I experienced an immediate health boost, with Puerto Vallarta being known for its mystical healthy effects.

We honeymooned in Hawaii and marveled at the beautiful islands, the green lush mountains and the crystal blue waves crashing on shore. But the humidity and mold led to three more ER visits, and new lung and heart problems.

We returned home to finish the remodeling and saw a different house….like a Phoenix rising from the ashes. What had been a nightmare, had emerged as a beautiful, warm and welcoming home. We staged it, filling it with eclectic, quirky furnishings and cheap art.

We put it on the market to recoup all the money that we had poured into it over the summer, which depleted our retirement accounts.

We closed our eyes and moved to California to search for gold….in the form of better health, sunshine and lollipops.

What we found was a city on the southern coast of California in a crumbling state of a weakened economy. Santa Barbara has had stagnant real estate sales for years and home owners are trying to cover their mortgages by renting out the “quaint”, old furnished homes that desperately need a lot of repairs.

After two tries at two different “lovely” rental houses, we threw in the towel, shoved our stuff in a storage space and said goodbye to the Golden State…the pot of gold that we had been chasing all summer.

We grabbed up our pups, and boarded a plane after no rest for weeks at the last disaster rental home that came complete with a property manager from Hell. Even the dogs were exhausted, and so glad to be home that night.

We’ve already bounced back, just two days later in our “Home Sweet Home.” Our grandkids came right over, thrilled that Nana and Steve-O were back.

The Byrne’s are home for good. We will still travel the world, many adventures await us. Our past lives have been filled with many hurtful challenges and the loss of most of our loved ones. So we make friends along the way with anyone we strike up a conversation with.

These friends fill the aching holes in our hearts and we in turn are generous, kind and giving to these lovely people that we love as much as family.

Family is not blood, it is the love we share, helping heal people’s broken hearts along the way.

I hope that you will join me on this journey of inspiration and motivation. Please subscribe to:

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