Red Cedar
More apocalypse, less angst
Post #3007: Reaching peak flower….
I think that I am finally recovered from my illness – the one that started a month ago with really bad exhaustion/aches and had me in bed for a week, then turned into a head cold – then just continued to produce swollen glands and exhaustion for a couple of weeks…. it seems to have pretty much left me with the dawning of spring. Hurrah!
This photo of an ornamental quince was taken last night just before a meditation sit in the backyard studio at the Urban Crow. It pretty much expresses how much more alive I am feeling post-illness, in the full flower of the season.
Post #3006: It’s officially done.
We signed the paperwork yesterday to remove the subjects on our Gabriola Island real estate purchase and we are now officially on the hook come June 9th to transfer the money over. Got the movers booked already and we’re now counting down until our move date. I’m feeling all the feelings right now – including a tiny little bit of anxiety. But I’m pretty sure that will pass soon. Onward!
Post #3005: A short cycle commuting update
Cycling this week has been super-swell. Not only have I missed every major rain storm by sheer scheduling luck, but the cherry blossoms in Vancouver are making it ridiculously beautiful. And on top of that – I made two major milestones this week:
- Shaved five minutes off my morning commute this morning (mostly because I’m no longer afraid to go fast down hills)
- Made it up the Adanac hill (two days in a row!)
I wouldn’t say that the cycle commute has exactly gotten *easy* in the last two months – but that’s partly because I was really sick for a couple of weeks and between that and travel ended up missing about three weeks of doing it. But even being back on the bike last week and this – I’m already feeling my strength build back up. And I sure am noticing on those days when I have to take the bus how much I don’t want to be on there.
I’m heading into the Easter weekend celebrating small victories and this is one of them: I said I was going to start cycle commuting again, and not only am I doing it, I have grown to quite like it again!
Post #3003: A few notes on returning
Yesterday we met with the packing company for a quote, today it’s the moving company. We’ve got time, it’s true, but I prefer to get the arranging done up front so I can focus on the work of sorting and organizing.
I have the distinct feeling that we are slipping through a narrow window, one that will close as quickly as it opened – but that’s probably not the case at all. Just the sensation of impending change is upon me and I can’t unlatch the shutters to leave quickly enough.
In shifting my attention island-ward I realize how many resources – people and places – are there for us. Family all over the place, an old family friend who owns a mid-island bike shop, union compatriots, co-workers with whom I have long and strong relationships, and dear friends who will now be only a couple of hours away. Even though we are not quite going to the place of my childhood, I have the strong sense of returning – in that I am orienting towards the island of my birth, even if not making home directly on it. Though – in some ways, Gabriola Island is very much like the Saanich I grew up in – rural, agrarian, and close to the sea at all turns.
In this I’m not romanticizing so much as remembering – with our move being in June I think of the driest summers of sharp brown grasses, and the swimmable ocean at Cadboro Bay where we had our class picnic every year before school let out – and I am glad for the time of year we are making this transition (farmers markets, summer swimming, bicycle rides to the marina for late afternoon beers!). While winters won’t be quite so pretty, I’m plotting my new studio as a place to hibernate (amongst creative material and small inspirations).
And as I start to unwind my life in Vancouver, I realize that I was half-turned away from it already. Probably years ago when I told myself that eventually I would leave, as soon as work wasn’t keeping me here anymore. Some small part of me must have known it would be this year, when I choose my key words for 2016 (back in December) – proclaiming “move, mobilize, and motivate” as my theme.
So curious.
Red Cedar 