“We have a strong case,” our lawyer assures us.  Of course we have a strong case.  We have the truth.

Last June, just a day or two before closing on the sale of our home in Washington, a man who owns the eighteen acres adjoining our five acres, served papers to our title company.  He said he owns a ten foot strip of land running between our two properties.  We lost the sale and our title has been tied up in court ever since.  We have not been able to market the house, nor are we able to take it off the market.  So, there it sits…  The man has not been able to show any sort of substantial evidence for his claim that he own this ten foot strip of land.  He does not even live on the property.  His ridiculous claim is full of ridiculous lies about things we have never done.  Big things… like logging his property???  (We aren’t loggers and we have trees of our own.) It goes on and on…

The damages he has brought into our lives are measurable and growing each day our house sits there empty.

There is one damage that isn’t so easy to measure.  It is one I didn’t fully appreciate until now.  Mental Anguish is real.  There seems to be a perpetual knot in my stomach and I can feel the burden on my shoulders.  The idea that one man’s lies can do so much damage in our life astounds me.  A man who owns two hundred acres throughout our county but wants a ten foot strip of ours.  We have the truth, but he is wily.  What if his lies are louder than our truth?

It is terrible.

I don’t  speak of this often and I have several reasons:

1. I can’t stand it.  If I speak of it…I think of it… and nausea sets in.  It is so absurd and frustrating!!!
2. It sounds like it is awful, and it is.  Yet we are doing just fine.  It is hard for me to know how to express “the awful” with all of the goodness in my life… so I don’t talk about it at all.  I would much rather focus on the happiness which permeates my life.
3. Gratitude.  There is so much to be grateful for in this trial.  As dearly as I want it to be over, I wouldn’t want to change it.  We have learned a lot, our marriage is stronger than ever, we have had the opportunity to serve others and we are all around better people.
4. Since I don’t want to complain, and people may have a hard time believing that I am sincere in my gratitude and joy, it is best to not talk about it.  The only interesting parts are the complaints, and who wants to listen to endless complaining?

I’m sorry that we live in a society with people who are cruel.  I know that my situation is nothing in comparison to so many.  My empathy for others has deepened as I am exposed to a new sort of trial.

Lessons are all around us.

I have more to say about this lawsuit and the part it is playing in my life right now, but first I wanted to vent just a bit….

Note:  This land issue is new to us, but apparently is left over from the 1960s, before we were born.  Fifty years go by and here we are….The really dumb thing is that if he had asked for the land, I am sure we could have worked something out.  Another neighbor who is also affected by this man is watching our case closely

We have trees of our own

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