A game of Jenga and a Ukulele

Pulling up anchor.

A friend in Maine wrote an Instagram post this morning mentioning red leaves twirling to the ground. It stopped me- SEASONS. Time is moving.

This image is from my book SPRING AFTER SPRING: How Rachel Carson Inspired the Environmental Movement. When I’m making a picture book I’m always thinking of how to show something in a way that kids can connect to. This image is all about seasons and the passing of time.

It’s the craziest thing…I forgot about seasons. For the last 10 years I have resided in places without them to any large extent. Summer/cyclone/hurricane season and winter. Winter means you might have to dig out a sweatshirt and jeans and the days are shorter. That’s pretty much it. You forget about how seasons help us to have a sense of time. I’ve been in an endless summer…not the kind where you grab your board and spend the day catching rolling waves with a narrator giving light-hearted commentary. The kind where you walk with your hands outstretched feeling around blindly for something to ground yourself with.

I forgot about starfish season on the little island… that was pretty cool.

I just got back from Costco. At Costco in the first week of September, it is Halloween, Thanksgiving AND Christmas. No pressure.

There are just a little over three months left in the year. Upon realizing that I caught myself to holding my breath again.

Panic...I launch into this new chapter in the next few days. I read that anxiety and excitement are the same as far as our brains are concerned. Our brains don’t know the difference. So, I’m telling my brain to be excited. I hope it believes me.

A friend wrote to me about relationship break ups. He said that the process involves a “disillusionment” or a “freeing yourself from illusion”. I think that’s true and he put it very well. I keep catching myself going over old territory in my memories about my marriage (at the point that we got to the little island) and seeing it through a new lens…the more I look at it it was my intent and my belief that helped me to give the benefit of the doubt and believe over and over. Over. My friend wrote, “Take a breath and enjoy your new found freedom.”

Free.

Breathe again…

Where to?

First stop- Savannah. I’ve never been, have you? Recommendations for things to experience?

BUT, before I head out in the next days there is still the very practical thing of the final packing…I’ve been talking about it for weeks- months. The blue tape on the floor delineates the size of the storage in my car. What you don’t see in this picture is everything that I intend to put into the car because it’s still too much! Time get ruthless and trim more.

And just a side not- sorry about all of the typos…that’s me. At least you know AI isn’t writing this! I thought about really going through and making sure everything is correct, but you know what- nah…. I care more about being consistent and thoughtful than about spelling, grammar and punctuation. I hope you won’t mind.

A couple of upcoming things. I’m bring interviewed for a magazine called Bold Journey (seems appropriate! ). The topic there is resilience…Towards the end of this month I’m doing my first podcast interview. It will be on the Dream CATCHER podcast. The topic I’ll be chatting about is Carl Sagan.…I’ll include links to these as soon as they are up, which I imagine will be early next month.

By the time the next newsletter drops, my Etsy shop should be stocked and ready! That’s another leg of my multiple income stream eco-system. Make things, put them out there, see what happens.

Here is a sample of a print I will be offering- art I made for my book STAR STUFF: Carl Sagan and the Mysteries of the Cosmos:

Don’t you just love Carl Sagan? We could sure use him right now to put the world into perspective for us.

Oh ! i forgot about the ukulele. I bought one. I found a little scrap of paper from the pandemic times that said “ukulele” and I remembered that I had wanted to learn how to ply just to have something relaxing to unwind with at the end of the day. So now I have this instrument and I am finding it relaxing to unwind with, BUT it doesn’t sound good- at least compared to songs I hear with ukuleles … I’m not sure what to do…different strings? It came with a little tuner and as far as I can tell, it looks tuned..BUT I put on a tutorial on YouTube and those ukuleles sounds amazing.

Until next time.

xo

Steph