Saturday July 3rd ~ 2010 ~ A New Beginning!

I have needed to take a break for these last few weeks. I have been going through a great many adjustments over the last months. As well as having one of the busiest traveling years that I have had in a decade with way too much driving, I have been finding the desired time at my bench way lacking. Creatively, I have been craving some uninterrupted time with all of my tools and toys within reach and it has not been happening and that fact has been driving me just a little crazy.

Ultimately, all of the life changes that I have embraced over these past several years have culminated with my choice to leave Tucson. Since January, I had been working towards making the move to Albuquerque the end of August but the discovery that I could save thousands of dollars if I hunkered down, got all of my belonging in a POD and moved the very same moment I departed Tucson for Bead & Button was too much to ignore. It was a massive month of insanity, getting up at 5am, packing up stuff for a few hours and then shifting gears to getting things prepared for Bead & Button, then at the end of the day packing up a few more boxes.

That final morning, the movers arrived to pack up the remaining large and heavy stuff and I was finishing packing up the car. I tucked my girls in their carrier and placed them onto the front seat and I drove out of Tucson. There was this release and a weight that left my shoulders as I drove east on the I-10 that was amazing to me. In the end it was one of the easiest choices that I have ever made and one that I am sure was the right one.

To say that I arrived in Milwaukee a bit drained and totally bruised was an understatement. I did get 2 days of rest in Albuquerque before starting the long drive to Milwaukee and that was so very essential. Most importantly, I had to get my two grey girls settled with Terri taking care of them while I was teaching. I could not have asked for a better caretaker, making them feel loved, spoiled, well groomed and totally at ease within hours of their arrival.

As hard as it was to choose to leave Tucson it was just as easy. I miss my amazing creative group of friends and my Bri but I have just been anxious and unsettled and the desire to follow my heart had been growing more intense for over a year.

I am getting settled in a  great new house, setting up my studio and I am looking forward to scheduling classes and workshops in most excellent new classroom space.

I am happy and at ease. I am feeling that the choices I have made, the path that I have trodden, the way that my life is moving forward is a positive one that has given me new depth and new clarity.