What punctuates your life?
On May 3, 2001 I pulled away from my parents Wyncote, PA home in the suburbs of Philadelphia. I drove away in my 1996 Toyota Corolla towards the west coast where at the time I thought I was moving for a year. My blueberry iMac was in the car as was my 2 x 4 foot wall sculpture that I’d made in my senior year sculpture class at the Art Barn at Bucknell. I was 24 years old. (Until I started this blog I always thought I was 25. I didn’t slow down to notice I was just 24. I’m so amazed at her courage, younger Me.)
On May 10, 2001 I arrived in Palos Verdes Estates, CA where I was moving to. I spent my first day there printing out pictures from the road trip. I drove to the Galleria mall because I found a one hour photo printing place at a Ritz camera there. I sat alone in my car in a McDonald’s parking lot and looked at the pictures.
As you know, on May 3, 2021 I launched this blog. And today, on May 10, 2021, just a week later, I am celebrating the fact that I have honored my commitment to mySelf to post here everyday. I am still not sure what this will be. For now I am honoring the practice of sharing my creativity, my poetry, my heart. The commitment to put myself out there. I am 44 years old, married to my amazing, joyful husband and I have two light-filled children (ages 8.5 and 4.5) who amaze me every single day with their wisdom and heart.
I am tempted to apply some structure to this. And one day I might. For now, I am letting it breathe. Writing helps me breathe. To find the space within my life and my world to pause and reflect. To notice how I feel. To clear my mind and fill a page. To overcome the fear of failure that goes hand in hand with each and every creative endeavor out there. And by creative, I mean everything, much more than the traditional art, music, dance, film. All of those things are creative of course. I believe creativity is the way you live your life. Life is your canvas. (And the way I live my life, life is my canvas.) As Gemma would say, “Every moment is a painting.” Soon you’ll meet Gemma. I’ll get there. (She’s smiling in my heart saying, “Aaaah Love.”)
As I write this, I am standing at my almost-fully-ergonomic standing desk setup. My blueberry iMac from all those years ago is a thing of the past. Now I have my silver MacBook plugged into my monitor. The Toyota Corolla is also a thing of the past. I’m on my 4th car since then! Through the years I got a Toyota Matrix, then a Prius, then a RAV4. See the Toyota trend? When we moved here to Western MA I got my first ever non-Toyota, a Honda CRV. I am a creature of habit - as creative as I am - habit and steadiness give me roots to flourish. I miss my Toyotas I have to say.
These details remind me how much can change in two decades. My whole world opened up in Los Angeles in a way I could’ve never imagined. This week I’ll tell you more.
May is like a birthday for me. A time to reflect on my journey. Like a punctuation mark or a chapter beginning so I can pause and notice how much has changed.
What punctuates your life? How do you know when one chapter is ending and another is beginning? What marks your decades beginning and ending in the book that is your life?