Taking pause -- true dat!  This week that's exactly what we did; took a moment to pause and celebrate all the hard work done up until this point with a roof over the Big House.   As mentioned last week bring on that roofing party! (check)

In the Croatian culture, a roofing party is a must.  It's a time to bring the workers together and have some wine, beer, ROAST PORK, bread, salads, green onions with salt, and in our case tribal cheesecake (made by Mom).  A tree goes on the roof, I'm not sure what that symbolizes, as part of the celebration -- perhaps it's a "strong like TREE" reference, or a symbol of family, maybe even a solid place for growth to take root.  Whatever the tree represents I'm happy to leave to the imagination of all; our tree is a nice maple we've kept from the original landscape which is planted at the east side of the property. 

Roofing parties are not unique to my tribe as I've discovered by talking to others.  Apparently, this tradition is also referred to as  Topping - out and celebrated by Eastern Europeans, Germans, Scandinavians, Czechs, Poles and other Western Europeans to name a few.  The idea of a construction ritual  to appease the tree-dwelling spirits displaced in its construction is certainly appealing.  For this project it's been a time to reflect on the work, transformation, honour of people (past, present and future).  Every so often I find myself racing,  feeling burdened with decisions and stresses,  so to take pause to celebrate most certainly puts things into perspective.  

Power to the worker(s) and security of a roof over head!