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Scaffolding! Not a word that I’d ever thought would excite me but oh boy was I wrong! Scaffolding has become the focal point of our current joy. Eight weeks ago we watched as it was unloaded, sorted and stacked. 421 days after buying our house in Sicily, the process of turning it into our home began, with the arrival of that scaffolding. Now as the time approaches to literally lift the roof, it’s wrapped around the house like an enormous hug, a reassuring embrace. “It’s ok, I’ve got you. We’re going to fix you all up” I can almost hear it whisper to the neglected stone and brick and crumbling plaster. The butterfly that is our house, is safe now in her cocoon. Her metamorphosis is under way.
We named our house Farfalla Blu. It means Blue Butterfly. Back in January 2021, when Covid was playing a significant part in all our lives and still impacting our freedoms, I was listening to a podcast about setting intentions for the year ahead. Never a fan of New Years Resolutions I was drawn to this gentler version that seemed less likely to crash and burn three weeks into the new year. We’ve all been there right? Gym memberships that by March have been abandoned, diets that don’t even make it that far, smokers who cave under the pressure of deciding it’s time to quit simply because it’s time to make resolutions. It’s a huge exercise in setting ourselves up for failure.
What the podcast described was something entirely different. It was an invitation into my life of whatever it was I felt was missing or wanted to change. The podcaster said to choose two important symbols to reinforce my intention, to keep my focus on it sharp. The first was to be an animal, any living creature that I was drawn to, that would be a mascot for my intention.
Stuck in endless lockdowns I was craving wings, flight, movement. I chose a butterfly.
Next I was invited to choose a colour. A colour I wanted to flood my life, soak into every nook and cranny. The colour I chose would have an important role in holding clear my intention. Everywhere I saw it, I would be reminded of what my intention for the year ahead was. I thought of Sicily, the sea and the sky. It had to be blue. On a grey Irish morning I wanted that deep blue hue to wash over me and float me away to a sunny Sicilian beach.
Fast forward a couple of years and an endless amount of research, perseverance and true grit and here we stand, looking at our house, all wrapped up like the best ever birthday present. And then we remembered.. The presence of scaffolding wasn’t new to us. Two years ago when we married in Ireland we chose a poem of the same name by Seamus Heaney to express our love within the ceremony and we asked my sister to read it. This is the poem and today it feels even more relevant than it did on our wedding day.
Scaffolding by Seamus Heaney
Masons, when they start upon a building,
Are careful to test out the scaffolding;
Make sure that planks won’t slip at busy points,
Secure all ladders, tighten bolted joints.
And yet all this comes down when the job’s done
Showing off walls of sure and solid stone.
So if, my dear, there sometimes seem to be
Old bridges breaking between you and me
Never fear. We may let the scaffolds fall
Confident that we have built our wall.
