Progress has been slow over here, but I think with the New Year will come some breathing space. I’ve found an apartment closer to work and for the past week all of my energy has been devoted to cleaning and moving. I’m very excited about the space, and hope to post about it more when time permits. It’s a great old place, with bucketloads of character and a landlord that’s pretty willing to let me have free rein over paint colors and the like, which just thrills me.
But in lieu of getting together an image-heavy post on a night when I’m aching all over from endless mopping, steam-cleaning, floor polishing, etc., I’ve decided to take a moment and reflect on the year. I’m generally all about New Year’s resolutions and will no doubt make some, but before I do that I feel like taking stock of…
Formative Experiences of 2009
1. I got laid off. By far the most traumatic thing that happened to me this year, it precipitated a move home and the loss of a good friend, among other things. But I truly believe that if it hadn’t happened, my health would have been ruined even further than it was by the end of February, because seriously – the next stop was the hospital.
2. I ran a market garden and farmers’ market booth for said garden. This was such an amazing experience. I loved it, and I really thought for a time that that’s where my avocation was, but I’ve come to find out that it’s not the right time for it (and perhaps not the right place). That doesn’t change the fact that I can flat grow some garlic and Italian parsley.
3. I got back into ceramics and bought a kiln. It doesn’t matter that I haven’t really gotten to use it yet – that will come in 2010, once things are settled. What matters is that I reconnected with a medium that I loved dearly in college and still love, and it made me happy.
4. I danced in Brasstown again. For one Saturday night, the only thing in the world that mattered was dancing, and that’s the best feeling you can have. And the next day I got to spend a few precious hours with a truly amazing blacksmith/artist friend.
5. I got a new job. It’s a pretty good job, too. Better than the old one. It’s taught me already that graphic design doesn’t have to be as painful as it was at Springs.
6. I spent a week at Penland and learned encaustic painting. I also learned that I wasn’t ready to apply for the Core program, and that it (and Penland) may never be for me the way the Folk School was. But as challenging as that week was, it was extraordinarily valuable. I loved encaustic painting and will hopefully pursue it in the new year.
7. I (will have) visited Maine. I fly out on Saturday for four days with a dear friend from the Folk School who’s in Maine going to school to be a midwife. I might even get to see my old roommate from the Folk School in Portland the night I fly in, which would also be a treat. It’s the farthest north I will have ever been, and the first time flying as an adult. It also counts as “traveling,” which is something I want to do more of while I’m young and relatively commitment-free.
And of course that list doesn’t even include the other, smaller events that came and went like SAFF, spending “Unemployed Spring Break ’09” in Atlanta with my best friend from college, taking part in an Asatru Mother Night ritual hosted by a friend just last week, having the regional CFSA farm dinner out here on the farm in October, going to a great pottery show at the Mint in Charlotte in September, and so on. It was a busy year, perhaps because I spent fully half of it unemployed. But I think as difficult and uncertain as so much of it was, especially the first half of it, it’s set the tone for the next little while. Life’s too short to do things you don’t want to be doing – there’s no time like the present for pursuing what interests you. I learned that from 2009, and I also learned this: there’s often little use in planning too far into the future, because you never know what will happen or where you will be in even one or two months’ time.
So there you go. If 2009 and the rest of this past crazy decade has taught me anything, it’s that. Live in the moment.