Endings and Beginnings

 

It has been a strange couple of years, full of changes many of us could never have predicted. For me, it has just gotten stranger, although not in a bad way. Tuesday, March 15^th marks my last day as manager and executive director of The Artisans’ Guild, the artists’ cooperative shop my friend Ellie and I started over 22 years ago. As of Wednesday the 16^th, I will officially be a full-time writer.

The Guild has been the center of my universe for a long time, and I have been blessed to have a job that I loved (most days), and to have spent my life surrounded by beautiful things and fabulous, creative people. But in the end, trying to balance the demands of the shop and the demands of writing because impossible, and I had to make a choice. Thankfully, we were able to find someone to step into my shoes who I believe can help the Guild to continue to prosper and grow.

People have asked me how I am going to celebrate leaving the shop, and to be honest, I don’t really feel like celebrating letting go of such an important piece of my life and my identity. It is, I won’t kid you, a loss in many ways. Instead, I will celebrate embracing my role as author, and hopefully, my increasing success in the days ahead. I guess we’ll see, won’t we. Life is full of difficult choices, and there is no progress without change.

All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well. Fingers crossed.

 

Season's End

One of the best (and sometimes worst) aspects of living in upstate New York is that we have Seasons. We're not one of those places (I'm looking at you, San Diego), where the weather is more or less the same most of the time, and winter means it is 50 instead of 70. Here, it can be 70 one day and 30 the next, just because it feels like it, and when the seasons change, boy howdy, do you know it.

At least it's not boring :-)

Honestly, I like having seasons. I like the way the different times of year have different energy, and different looks, all of them beautiful in their own way. Although it took becoming a Pagan and learning about the Wheel of the Year, that cycle of ebb and flow that all things follow, before I made my peace with winter. Now, although I still don't enjoy the cold and the snow, I DO love the quiet, more restful energy of the winter, when nature slows down and slumbers, and the pace of life is a little bit slower. (In my case, not until after the holiday rush at the shop, but you know what I mean.) After rushing around all year trying to keep up with the yard and garden, and summer activities, it is nice to sit on the couch with a cat or five, a mug of hot chocolate, and a book.

There are lots of signals that tell me that the summer is over, fall is here, and winter is fast approaching. The wooly bear caterpillars are everywhere, the geese honk overhead as they fly south, and the trees have shown their glorious fall colors and are already beginning to fade.

 Across the street

 Next to the back of the barn

 There's always one show-off.

But for me, I know the season is over when I finish tearing out the garden and putting it to bed for the year. That's what I did last weekend (it was really a process over a couple of weeks, but the last of it was finished this Saturday). My friend Ellen and my step-daughter's mom Jo came over, Jo mostly to supervise and keep the other two of us company, since she'd had dialysis earlier in the day. Ellen and I pulled the rest of the plants out, saving a few green tomatoes to ripen on the counter, and leaving the last bed of spinach and lettuce, which will stay alive until the first snows. Here and there is a batch of kale or parsley. Otherwise, the beds are all empty and covered, waiting for the entire process to begin again in the spring. Next year's garlic is planted, and the fountain and pump have been pulled out of the pond. It seems strangely quiet and peaceful inside the garden fence, reminding me that I too should be starting to slow down a little, and turn inward.

Do you have seasons where you are? If so, do you like them all, or only one or two? Do you try and go with the flow, or simply charge along, no matter what? Happy fall!

Feline Friday: The Big Changes Version

Here is one reality of life--some things never change. For instance, here is Magic the Cat, waiting (somewhat impatiently) for me to bring my breakfast into the living room, where I eat every morning because the light is amazing and I can watch the birds out the window. She's excited because I am eating cereal with cut up strawberries, and she loves strawberries. Yes, my Magic is Not Your Average Cat. You're just figuring this out? (In case you were wondering, that is Kim Harrison's new book I'm reading. Fab, as always.)

On the other hand, change is necessary for growth, and periodically we tend to hit times of major change and shift. This can be unsettling, especially if you are an uber-rooted Taurus (snort). I'll admit it--I'm not good with change.

Except right now.

Things are definitely changing and shifting, and not always in comfortable easy ways. But I am embracing the change, because it just feels like TIME.

I've finally gotten a fiction book deal after 7 years (interestingly, 7 is not only a traditional number for change--like the 7 year itch people in relationships are said to get--but also a biological fact...every 7 years, all the cells in your body have changed. You are literally a new person.).

And achieving that goal, after being focused on it for so long, frees me up to look around and see what else I need to be doing. Don't get me wrong: the hard work is just starting. But I don't have to be quite as driven in that particular direction and so now I am working at getting rid of old patterns that don't work for me and setting up new ones that do.

I'm now on an "internet diet" -- no Facebook, Twitter, or blogging on the weekends. If it is possible (within my obligations), I won't be on the internet at all on Saturdays and Sundays. If there is something I have to do, I'm zipping on and off again. It's amazing how much time this has freed up, and how much more relaxed I feel.

I am also back to a regular (although not yet every day) meditation practice, working at increasing my exercise, and taking a close look at the people and patterns in my life to see what works, and what doesn't.

Change is scary, but sometimes good. Are you working on any changes in your life? Does it feel good, or scare you...or both?

Oh, and don't forget to enter my Celebration Palooza Giveaway to help me celebrate both the book deal, and my birthday this Sunday. (And yes, I might pop onto Facebook for ten minutes to thank people for any birthday greetings...)

Here's something I hope doesn't change for a long time--a reasonably healthy Samhain, lazing in the sun.
Happy Friday, all!