A Chapter Closing

 Wow! I haven't posted since August! Each time I consider advertising my books, some well-meaning expert advises me to post on social media daily and stay on top of my blog. Sometimes I'll follow through for a brief period and then get involved in something else. I mean, life certainly offers plenty of diversions, wouldn't you say? 

But what have I been doing? (I see that I failed to hit the Post button in December for a post that only included a link and recall now the excitement of finding an interview I'd done with BBC last Spring. I was probably looking for a way to include BBC 4 Soul Radio's logo as it's quite cool and not meeting with success, merely wandered away. Ooops. I'll hit it anyway in a minute)

Well, I've been snowed in for periods recently, which I thoroughly enjoy as I have everything I need and it's so beautiful. I did have a pretty painful hand surgery which has made navigating the ice on the way to the woodpile a treacherous adventure as the stakes involved in slipping and falling on that hand are not something I want to consider and throwing heavy logs on the fire with one hand has been a bit challenging, but so far so good... and it's actually been quite magical here. I'm not sure if I shared this yet, but I have decided to part with my possessions and sell my property here in the mountains... and then just set sail. I plan on taking just a backpack and exploring as much of the world as I can. My goal is to dance with as many people as I can and to lie under as many dark skies as I can. 

Studio where I keep the festival costumes. It's a really sweet space with the same view as the front porch and picture window and is a peaceful respite when the cabin is filled with revelers for days on end.

Ahhh, winter sunsets!

Well, this barely captures the intimacy, but it's the clearest I've gotten yet on an iPhone. It's such a wonderful feeling seeing where we are in the Milky Way. And I love it when folks visit who've never seen more than a few stars above the city. I still recall the wonder on the face of a lad visiting from Seoul when he got out of the car and looked up at the sky. It was during the dark moon on a cold November night. He could barely believe that this was the universe he'd been living in for twenty years. Sometimes the stars shine so brightly here that they wake me.

So, I've been unloading, which has involved a lot of clearing out, selling and donating, and doing small repairs as I remove pictures and all of the personal effects that made it home. The more I remove, the more visible others become. Like the night-glow stars affixed to the children's ceilings. And all of this takes time. For example, as I peeled these off could clearly recall considering how to place them, which configurations would particularly delight them as they looked up at the logs after turning the lights out at bedtime. All of these things...I organized 3,000 photos... take so much time, and have involved an inordinate amount of sentimentality. Which can slow one down. I think that after a year of this, I have, well for the most part, passed the tipping point where I am accepting my decision and feeling the lightness in who I will be. I still have my days when I wonder whether I should just hold on to it, maybe airbnb it. The view is phenomenal. The skies so dark. And it's so quiet. How I love listening to the mating calls of the forest animals ricochet across the mountains! 

Resolute, I pour my love and my angst into polishing the gorgeous wood, mostly Southern pine, but also wormy chestnut and preparing to turn over the house and property (30 acres).

And some projects are actually fun! Last weekend I tackled the vinyls that had been housed in a chest under the stereo and laid them out to distribute. Of course it's just a fraction of what I've owned over the years, but my, it was fun to revisit them! How many amazing albums I'd forgotten about. My Spotify algorithm is bringing me back so many forgotten eras. Funny, I was just listening to a podcast of a woman telling of a study on elderly people whose physical condition reverted back to a more youthful time when they replicated the former environment, down to music and food. And then I felt myself dancing to jams exactly like I did in college when I first heard them.

Wow! How could so many stellar musicians perform on one album? So, even though my projects seem to move is a slo-mo pace, there have only been a few where I am wondering: who brought that here? Mostly I am in awe and smiling over days of yore, thinking of just how lucky I've been.

Today I am grateful for music, fire and snow. My years here. And you.