Forever Home Within ~ and Beyond!

By Vanessa Bunting

This book returns to the true story of ones search for the perfect place to settle and flourishinside and out.

Following unexpected job loss and subsequent house sale, Vanessa once more had important decisions to makeand quickly. Any romantic thoughts about living the dream were truly shelved for nowor were they?

An opportunity had presented itself where the focus could shift toward lifestyle rather than location, so it wasnt a case of where to live anymore, but how to live. Once again, fate and intuition became faithful guides.

A new life unfolded, consisting mostly of the enchanting company of animals and weekend walks with her loved one. But how can so little feel so abundant? Because its personally fulfilling and means so much.

Now new threats to this tranquil lifestyle are on the horizon, but are they strong enough to challenge the new impetus that has awoken, to protect and defend all thats held dear?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Dec 22, 2016
• ISBN: 9781504370462

Vanessa Bunting

From the author of Forever Home Within comes this further lighthearted and accessible read about everyday life. Vanessa Bunting has a professional career background spanning more than three decades and has written various articles for magazines and newsletters. Vanessa lives with her husband and four cats in Essex, England. Visit www.foreverhomewithin.com.

Book preview

Copyright © 2016 Vanessa Bunting.

Front Cover: Squirrel and oak tree in garden

Rear Cover: A beautiful sunset viewed from home

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Balboa Press

A Division of Hay House

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.balboapress.com

1 [phone]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

ISBN: 978-1-5043-7045-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5043-7046-2 (e)

Balboa Press rev. date: 01/10/2017

Contents

1 Me Time

2 Work

3 Pets

4 Home

5 Family

6 Friends

7 Marriage

8 Health

9 Life

Illustrations:

1) Fozzie

2) Clipsey

3) The Snug

4) Whitehead

5) Local landscape

Serene he stands amidst the flowers and only counts life’s sunny hours. For him dull days do not exist –

the brazen faced old optimist.

Sundial motto

Acknowledgments

To my lovely husband, cats, family and friends for their love and acceptance of my ways and ramblings. You feed my soul and ignite my imagination.

For all the kind comments and encouragement from people, including those on the estate where I grew up - especially Audrey, a wonderful lady – who secured the completion of this book.

My deepest thanks to Balboa Press and Karen for your help in making this happen.

And you.

With love,

Vanessa xx

Preface

Welcome to Forever Home Within ~ and Beyond! where we can sit down with a nice hot drink and muse once again, about life and all its strange signs and coincidences which bring about fate and destiny. It’s not just a book about me and my life, it’s more about recognizing the importance of spiritual well-being, which is quite separate from material acquisition and wealth – as indeed we are finding more these days, as masses flee their war-torn countries with little more than the clothes on their backs, in search of a calmer and safer existence.

We can take so much for granted, including our mind-set in thinking that we can cope with anything, as I once did, to my cost. Now I know that living from within is all that matters, not the image I once set myself to achieve.

In this book, I have relayed, as honestly and as accurately as possible, my particular responses to ongoing events in my life and the inevitable twists and turns of fate, which I hope you will find both interesting and comforting.

My aim was always that the book should read as a chain of events but within each individual chapter.

Overall, like most people, my priority is always to keep my mind, body, and inner spirit in good order by appreciating the books or magazines I read, TV I watch, music I listen to, food I eat, places I go to, people I spend time with, and duration of sleep. I try to do the right thing for the right reasons and never stop caring about people, animals and life.

Old-fashioned values are also important to me and will come through in this book, I’m sure, but hopefully not in a boring way – I do laugh out loud regularly.

In my opinion, there’s always room for traditional values in our lives, because they form part of our make-up and have been provided to us by our wise ancestors who, I like to think, are aware that their little pearls of wisdom are still going strong and serving well today.

Enjoy and smile.

CHAPTER 1

Me Time

I have always loved writing, in one way or another. It’s the one thing I can honestly say, has always been a part of me. From a very early age, I wrote to pen friends – arranged through primary school – and I still remember the name of a Swedish pen friend from all those years ago, when I felt so excited at receiving a letter from Sweden.

I would then read the letter over and over to make sure I’d responded to every question or comment. I dare say there was plenty of waffle involved in my letters, relating mostly to pets or horse-riding.

I loved writing at school and once received a prize from my primary school teacher for writing all I knew about dogs. (This included sticking comic pictures randomly to each page amidst the words.) The prize was a bottle of Pretty Peach perfume by Avon Cosmetics. It had a plastic peach as the lid. I was chuffed to bits with this wonderful gift and quite happily shared it with my sisters.

Another encouraging moment was in senior school when we were asked by our English teacher to write a murder mystery. After I’d handed my work in for marking, I was cringing because I’d gone quite over the top in describing the moment when a woman discovered a dead body; I had written, She could feel nothing but the warm urine which was running down her legs (which is probably quite tame by today’s standards). But my efforts were marked A+, the highest mark I remember getting at school. Nevertheless, whilst I enjoyed writing, I didn’t take it any further, because the most important factor in our household in the 1970s, was getting a job and paying our way.

Luckily, I secured a job within a marine insurance company in London, which wasn’t completely regretful, because I ended up earning a good salary and so went on to enjoy independent living. In the early days, I used to write about all the ominous events with ships at sea and the massive oil spills involved. I found it really interesting, so it felt natural to write about them.

Over the years, of course, my priorities changed, and my writing subsided and sank just like those stricken ships, but I always kept in touch with friends and relatives by cards and letters, even to this day, which I very much enjoy and regard as little sparks from embers, still burning within me.

Now I have this fantastic opportunity to write once more, to create a complete book filled with tales of life’s incidentals and dramas that I’d like to share with you, at least, and give comfort or inspire at best.

I enjoy reading books and magazines of all kinds because there’s always something interesting to learn. Newspapers are informative but for me, I prefer a look on the internet each day and select a story which appeals to me. The problem with newspapers is that you can turn the page and be faced with a horrible picture which can be absolutely shocking and stay in one’s mind for too long. I’m more than aware of bad situations and so prefer to learn of the good things that happen in life and are also included in the news each day.

There probably isn’t a certain type of book for a certain type of person. We all have so many facets to us that we can either find the most mundane or the most bizarre occurrences really interesting. In my case, I find everyday situations interesting because they usually involve people, animals, circumstances, weather, or fate; our responses to those factors can make the outcome of a situation either positive or negative.

These are the sort of ponderings I get up to when I’m alone – but thinking further about our differences, the only thing we all have in common is that we are human beings with inner spirits. Try putting people into different groups. It’s almost impossible, because differences will always exist, such as gender, age, faith, blood group, eye color, Western star-sign, Eastern star-sign, qualifications, likes, dislikes, and so on. No matter how few people are in a group, differences will still remain, as scientifically proven by our DNA. Yet as we are all human, we have so much in common. We love, we hate, we laugh, we cry, we smile, we grimace, we give, we take, we accept, and we reject. We are all things human but driven by our own unique inner spirits, and it’s this inner self that I find so intriguing. I’ve heard it said, We are not human beings trying to live a spiritual life, we are spiritual beings trying to live a human life.

In my particular realm of existence, and at our old address (which consisted mainly of home, work, husband, and cats), I once decided to alter my working hours to part-time because more staff had started at the office and the workload had therefore dropped down quite a lot to the point where the days and hours dragged.

Having first discussed the situation with my husband, Tony, I then approached my boss and asked for fewer hours each day for four days a week rather than five – and he agreed. I was thrilled, as this meant I could spend more time at home with Foz (the cat) and do house-y stuff, which I really enjoy. This may seem lazy to some, but I had worked for almost forty years and so felt entitled to take life at a slower pace.

The first week or so with my new working hours was great. I was leaving work at 3:00 p.m., getting home at 3:30, having a cup of tea, chatting on the phone (to whoever I thought might be at home too), checking e-mail, making sandwiches for the next day, starting dinner, feeding Fozzie, and getting a cup of tea ready for Tony’s arrival (he usually phoned to say he was on his way). I felt so much better and more in control of my life from this one simple improvement.

However, the weirdest thing is, after the initial month or two of my new-found, time-rich lifestyle, I started to not have the time for chats on the phone when I got home. Instead, I just about had time to finish the same jobs before Tony got home (and he wasn’t any earlier). So how does that figure? Furthermore, I began rushing the jobs when I got home so that dinner wasn’t late. It was almost a case of being in exactly the same situation as I was before. The evidence was that I had slowed right down and took a gentler pace of life. How often do we hear of people who have retired mentioning, I’m so busy; I just don’t know how I ever had the time to go to work. I was beginning to relate to them. Although I didn’t want each day to be identical, it tended to be so, because certain stuff still needed to be done if standards were to be maintained (and I would be having Fridays off work anyway).

One particular Friday morning, I decided to have a pottering around day and warned Tony to not expect any housework or shopping to be done before he returned home. This was to be my day, where I could indulge any little whim I fancied. So it started with creeping back into bed with a second cup of coffee. Bliss already. As I sipped and swallowed, I noticed that there were far too many knick-knacks and ornaments in the bedroom; they really belonged downstairs in the old display cabinet that once belonged to my grandmother. I made a mental note of all the improvements I was going to make to the room – when I got up!

The room did indeed look much better without various knickknacks, like the little ceramic houses, wooden cats candle sticks and silk flowers. Small changes can make a big