I actually took that picture last week, a find from a friend’s closet-purge. I love the wool dress! Alas, so did some moths. We’ll share it, I suppose.
I just redid the entire shop portion of my website! Did ya get a chance to look? I’m not a pro, so even jumping in/ starting somewhere was a hurdle BUT …here we are. Plus…four people have ordered. Yay! (Only one of them is a family member ;)).
Also…it’s been a minute. Not that writing hasn’t been on my mind…just…what a whirlwind.
Here’s the catch up:
In 2019 I quit my job. I was burnt out and digging my way out. I walked the Camino de Santiago, 536 sacred miles across Spain. I meant to start blogging when I returned. Spoiler alert: I wasn’t fully restored after the 31 days on the trail. I called my dear friend Joe in the midst of it all, from the top bunk of a hostel in Barcelona. “Joe,” I said, “I’m not sure I’m ready yet.”
“It took you years to end up where you are,” he said, “What made you think it would take a few months to fully recover?”
Blast.
I meant to start writing again, I really did.
I came back, and started a new job, at a print shop, the owner and I old friends. I drove back and forth through the winter months, listening to audio books. By March 2020, the pandemic started. Its odd to think of the days before the pandemic, me listening to an autobiography on Michele Obama that I never finished, that book stuck somewhere in the “before-times.”
Remember when we thought: ten days? One month? Maybe 8 weeks?
By December, the business couldn’t sustain me and I was applying for unemployment along with others. It wasn’t so bad during December–I visited with my sister, made art, and reveled in Christmas.
Come 2021 I was applying for jobs. My thing was: 5 resumes each weekend. Each week I’d interview and follow-up interview and guess and cross my fingers and walk the fine line between not getting my hopes up and not getting discouraged (…it is a fine line). I bought a flight to visit my sister in Utah, and was offered a job right before I left, starting date: March 1.
Oh Lord, how do I even write the next part? The positives: I rode my bike to that office more often than not, a delightfully Michigan blessing; I befriended some good souls; my office-mate was the kindest man I have ever met in my life; I set up a birdfeeder outside of my window; I added some skills to my resume. The negatives? In my gut I knew–this isn’t the place and I had to get out. The latter I realized with more urgency as the weeks rolled on, so I returned to my practice: 5 resumes a week, trying to stay hopeful. And, here’s the good news: I landed one. One that will stretch me and seems like a good, good fit.
When I was working on my shop, I thought, with some guilt, “I have barely written in my little blog!”
And then I thought: I’ve had three jobs in the last year.
It is a personal record, to be sure.
What a whirlwind.
And, I know that others have suffered greater challenges and losses. But also: God does not grade pain on a curve. My hard can be respected, too.
Here’s to us. The fighters, the hopeful, the members of the Great Resignation, the ones working and walking and waiting.
Fingers crossed I’m back.
I just needed a little break.
What have you been up to?