What’s up?

I don’t know about you, but the past months have been stressful. And yet I’m excited in a positive way. What’s up with that?

What’s up is my feelings of excitement about things to come, and those feelings are based on things I’ve been doing. Such as:

Art: Fabric, paints, glitter, and ink, not to mention photography. I discovered Fiber Arts Take Two online textile arts courses and signed up for “Embrace the Journey/Photos, Fabric & Mixed Media” with Wen Redmond. Wowza! Mind blowing, that’s what’s up with that! Fiber Arts Take Two offers a whole bunch of extraordinary courses and there’s something for everyone who’s interested in working with fabric as art.

Reading: It’s so easy to get stuck in the rut of only reading favorite authors’ books, but the problem is that even though I’ve got a hefty list of favorite authors, they aren’t churning out their stuff nearly fast enough for me. I decided that I needed to add on more new favorites, and so these days I’m an early reviewer for books and sometimes for short stories. It’s a very cool way to become exposed to lots of new authors, plus it requires me to think about the writing in a critical way, which in turn teaches me more about my own writing.

Writing: Blessings on all editors who work so hard to bring out the best in their authors. And blessed, indeed, is the author who connects with a good editor. I’m so blessed! The sequel to Dark Green is coming along slowly but surely. Soon as I get done with this blog post, I’m going to get back to it.

Gaia: I’m not religious but if I was I’d be involved with animism in its various expressions. I live a life that puts me outdoors much of the time, even though I sit in front of a computer screen for hours. Every day it seems there’s more to learn about a reality that dwells on the fuzzy line between the physical and the spiritual and that is extraordinarily exciting to me. Some might call it enlightenment, but that is too heavy a word. I call it falling into Gaia awareness.

Fun stuff I’m learning: All the above is learning, and it’s fun, but there’s more! I’m attempting to learn Qi Gong (very beginners level). I’m learning goat management—or, more specifically, how to manage one goat named Gabby (goats are different, that’s for sure). I got a new (to me) wood stove and I’m learning how to get the best out of it. My dog Bubz and I are learning to communicate via hand signals because he’s gone deaf. There’s more, but those are the biggies.

More: If you’re interested in a different kind of blog-type experience, and you like getting letters in the mail (as opposed to ads and bills) you might be interested in subscribing to a cool thing called StampFans. You’ll get a physical letter from me every month in which I talk about what’s up in my life and what I’m thinking about these days. It’s not for everyone obviously, but it might be for you.

PS: It snowed last night. The photo above is from last winter, because it’s still overcast right now.