“The quality of life is in proportion to the capacity for delight” “The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention” These were themes I have begun to understand as true for me, that dovetail with understandings I’ve gleaned from other reading and self-reflection.

I’ve recently read ‘Braiding Sweetgrass’ by Robin Wall Kimmerer for the first time. When I finished, I read it again, underlining and dog-earing to mark passages that were particularly meaningful to me.

In the Spring of 2023 I wrote a grant request to my regional arts council to ask for funds to help me develop my art practice. I hoped to make some large collages focused on pollinators.

I have learned so much.

It’s that time of year. We busy ourselves with making resolutions, buying new planners, seeking meaning and goals for the days ahead, while looking back at the path we’ve taken to get here.

A dear friend reminded me that very few paths are linear, but the path always leads us to ourselves. Amen. 

If I ever get to the point where it seems like too much work, or it’s just too late and I’ll be too tired in the morning to go out and chase the Northern Lights, I will look at this photo and remember what it felt like to stand in the darkness of a back road with the car lights off, on a warm autumn night, with one of my nearly-grown children and be in complete, literal awe.

The light is becoming more golden, the leaves have just begun to confetti the ground, and my pollinator garden has just a few blooms left. Most of the plants have been chewed by bugs, just as I had hoped. Dead stalks left to shelter sleeping bees and moths through the winter.

I’m a little nervous starting this newsletter but recently a dear friend of mine told me that sometimes what feels like fear may actually be anticipation, and that it happens when something is important to you. How true.

To say that I am excited about what is coming is an understatement. I have some clarity around what I want out of this life, and what I have to offer, and I now have the support necessary to bring it all together.

I am so fortunate to live in a place that supports creatives.

To those of you who have touched base through the years, and wondered where I was.