Archives for the month of: August, 2009

Feet in waterI’ve been to the beach. I’ve tasted summer. I’ve slowly waded into the cold water, getting colder and colder the deeper I went.

I took a deep breath and went all the way under. It was cold, but I moved and swam and frolicked, kicking and motioning my arms back and forth as I moved myself perpendicular to the shore.

Slowly, I got warmer. How could I have thought the water was so cold? Swimming back to shore, the water got warmer and warmer still. “Bathwater,” I said!

Swimming at the beach with people that you love. That’s how summer should be.

Laura-Jane in eastern PEI

I started blogging in 2001 (back when blogs were called diaries). I began incorporating photos into my blog in 2003.

I do not pretend to be a photographer. I do not know how to use the settings on my camera, nor do I particularly wish to. I do not aspire to amass a dark room full of tripods and flashes. I don’t think I even take particularly good pictures. But what I do pretend to be–and aspire to be–is a person who understands people, and, above all, I aspire to understand myself.

I am always searching the faces of the people I meet, trying to understand how it is that they are feeling–and the same goes for myself.

Cameron took the above photo of me a few days ago. I like this picture because it captures the essence of how I’ve been feeling. To me, I look happy but dazed and a bit overwhelmed. This photo sums me up perfectly.

I’ve not been writing here lately for a variety of reasons. I can feel that I’m going through a life transition, and, when I read back through my hodge-podge of blog entries over the past six months, I know that this is true. (I love blogging. It’s my barometer.)

I feel that in order to keep my love of writing and blogging happening, I am going to write more freely. I’d like to post more frequently. I’d like to let my mind meander freely. I’d like to close my eyes and let my mind flow through my fingertips. That’s what works best for me and that’s what feels so good about writing these words.

I feel that I’ve boxed myself in, and I don’t want to feel boxed anymore.

Please stay with me as I continue this journey and investigate life’s big questions.

Our wild raspberries

Yes, those raspberries and cherries came from our wild, untamed garden and property. No, I do not have a semi-related story to tell. (I wrote one last year around this time that might suffice.)

Why am I pawning you, dear reader, off on a year-old blog post? Because these days I am so brain-dead by the end of the day that I have little energy for writing for pleasure.

My work revolves around being creative for other people and their projects. When I get busy with work, I get really into my work. As a result, my own projects, such as this one, fall by the wayside.

Yes, I get to work from home, which is amazing. But….that also means that I am always at work! I have yet to learn work/life balance. My work ethic has followed me to our new life here at Whimfield.

Yes, my hands are lily white in the above photo because I am holed up all day at my computer in my home office working from dawn ’til dusk; no speck of sunshine dares cross my lily white skin.

Our wild (sour) cherries!

And while I work life seems to go on around me.

Plants are growing, things are happening!

I think I’m coming due for a deep breath and a mini-reset. Will someone please remind me why we embarked on this adventure in the first place? I must continue to remind myself about the important things in life. Yes, it’s all too easy to slip back into the way things were.

Perhaps every few months we should all schedule a deep breath and a mini-reset. “How am I doing?” “What should I change?” “Do I like the track my life is taking?” Even if the answers are positive, it’s important to keep checking.

I just checked in with myself. My answer was that things are good, but I think I need to slow down a little. I hope that I’ll let that epiphany guide my decisions over the next few months.