I have likely written an "in between" blog about this time of year several times since I began this practice. The nature piece is similar to other years. Higher hiking isn't so good. The trails are sometimes the only places with snow! My hike to Cub Lake in RMNP would in some parts, have been enhanced by traction devices. In other spots, they would have made prints in the bare earth. As I hiked higher and into the woods, more snow was on the trail and across the landscape, but not nearly covering all the ground. Perhaps around the lake, snowshoes would have been useful. So, the trails are uneven, mixed with slush, snow, ice and bare ground--a bit like life.
Fall lasted longer than usual with warm, almost summer-like weather, perhaps making up for last year's dramatic interruption by the floods.
I've written about endings in my last blogs, and I'm doing reasonably well with letting go. But nothing else has come to fruition. My schedule for the first quarter of the year, cold winter, is void of teaching and workshop opportunities. I have felt that this is my call. Am I missing something? Not open to unexpected ways this might materialize? Need to do more inner healing work? Am I wrong about the work I'm here to do?
I don't yet have an appointment calendar for 2015. The calendar of 2015 months in my 2014 calendar is enough. My Pilates classes remain at the same times. The two monthly meetings I'll have after this month are on successive Thursdays, not difficult to remember. I have a choice of centering prayer groups. I may stay on a CASA committee, but only as a resource. It feels bare, like the aspen and willows devoid of their leaves. I've been through dark nights of the soul a few times already. Is this another such time?
A writer friend reminded me that setting aside retreat-like time for writing was the way to get a larger piece completed. I must admit that I am immensely tired of my memoir. Whew! There. I said it. Yes, I still feel that tug to complete another round of editing and cutting. I know that an epilogue is needed. Am I looking for other work to do, avoiding this piece of writing. It seems so. With other writing I want to do, completing the editing work and sending out another round of query letters is the task for the winter quarter of 2015. Perhaps I can get a start on it this Friday and Saturday, find a way to look at it newly. Author Kent Haruf's words, recorded ten years ago after success with his books (Plainsong, Benediction) and replayed on NPR in Tuesday's announcement of his death over last weekend, focused on the work needed to write well. He said there was plenty of talent around, but much less willingness to do the work. I heard him speak at the Boulder Library several years ago and remember his quiet self-effacing demeanor. He did the work. It seems that is my winter task. (And cleaning up my writing room so it is more inviting, a must do job!.)
Blessings on this early December day.
Next to a sofa writing spot!
