HILLS AND VALLEYS
… surprise in search of ourselves
Friday June 27, 2014
What’s next?
I’ve been thinking — time off, some golf, a trip.
Time, soon, for that.
Financial changes of late lifting, long-standing burdens reduced.
I like that.
Quiet times, beach walking times, simmering summer times — have been missed.
Easy (everyone’s wish), never happens.
Can’t imagine simple-life, troubles-free life.
Surmountable challenges.
Ugly twists, just memories, when we smile satisfaction at chapter’s end.
Lasts a few minutes.
A few hours.
Then, “what’s next” overtakes …
My 15 year chapter closes — spring un-easy (deaths, moves, work). Fifteen years ago I married, 2nd time, moved back to Calgary. My dad followed a year later. A year later that marriage crumbled. Closed that door the following year. Business, financial and emotional hills and valleys followed. Watched up-close, my dad’s health declined, distance-witnessed my daughters goings-on. Known women — glorious hills, drought-valleys, nothing stuck. Kindness of friends and strangers alike, supportive clients — sustained me. My children finding their own way, two grandchildren — awesome joy. Holiday trips — Hawaii fun, golf, cooking and plenty of adventures. And finding my voice — on the page, on the stage. Fifteen years with some easy pieces — but mostly, jig-saw puzzle-like. That chapter, on the shelf now.
Taking anything easy has been so very far removed from consciousness for so long.
I’m not planning sabbatical. No long trips to wander far-away deserts. I’m thinking about this refreshing time for being open-to-anything that now becomes possible, open to anyone who happens along — always that way, but easier to see when heavy fog clears.
Time for new.
Projects itching at the gate.
Client’s dream, my challenges — far from done, stewing on my front burner.
What’s next?
Don’t expect easy.
Mark Kolke
196,880
column written/ published from Calgary
morning walk: 10C/50F, clear, negligible breeze, heat ahead this afternoon with resulting predictions of thunderstorm risk; Gusta strolled and my mind wandered — a bizarre set of feelings about recent days causing me to be completely distracted
Reader feedback / comments always welcome:
Love it, glad I read it and I think what you said could be summed in 40 seconds as a very brief outline …. How did the luncheon go? I am going to see if I can sum up my life and experience in 40 seconds … and like you, I have been and seen and done it all too, B, Keremeos, BC
Re: morning walk: Has Gusta ever caught a squirrel? Every dog should have their day and hers began ‘peachily’ simply from a sniff of a hope. GW, Bon Wier, Tx.