Open letter to myself

Dear Virginia,

Honey, you have a problem. You need to gather yourself and your books and your projects together and make a plan. You need to stop trolling craftgawker and Pinterest, stop perusing the recommendations on Amazon, stop reading newsletters and culling book titles, stop searching Ravelry for new patterns... Stop. Etsy will keep on without you.

The pile of books, both digital and physical, that you have queued up to read is staggering. The puke of projects, with and without materials, with and without looming deadlines for completion, with and without intended recipients... It's a train wreck.

So pause. Get to work. Read. Enjoy the nourishing bounty of the season with the CSA share and try some of those Nourishing Traditions recipes with the ingredients you possess.

But for Goodness' sake, chill out on the stacking or you will never get through anything currently in line. And that would be tragic, because some of it is AWESOME!!

Love, V

Bookish-ish

I've been reading, and making things, but have been wretched about getting things written. Tonight I'm planning on deciding on a new book to start, and reading!! before bed, which must be soon, so this is an "-ish" post.

For whatever reason, I've been in this apocalyptic zombie zone lately; I just finished _Zone One_ by Colson Whitehead. It wasn't a revelation, but it was entertaining and well-written as far as zombie novels go. And short, so that was nice for me. I totally didn't plan to write tonight, so I have nothing planned in terms of a proper review, but I will say that it's left this odd literary nonsense rattling around my head - the last paragraph calls to mind immediately the end of _The Great Gatsby_, "The Dead," and _Little Dorrit_. A lot actually reflects "The Dead" by Joyce, tossing it up and playing with it in bizarre ways. So I have to think about all that more, perhaps reread Joyce, and write something sensible.

My Fall Begins Tonight!

Tonight Bret picked up our first CSA share of the season. I love getting the weekly surprise of delicious local veggies and discovering new ways to cook seasonally. The summer dry spell is a sad time in Florida, with nothing but watermelon to hold us over. So hooray for fall! And welcome weekly deliveries from beautiful Swallowtail Farm.

Stumbled Upon

Things have been crazy. I have ideas about genuine posts brewing, and will get back eventually, when I have a few minutes to rub together. I am creating things, though, which is important because it's awesome and because the holidays approach... And we are forever busy shuttling from one place to another, doing laundry, and trying to become experts in, well, Holland.

I found this today, and it so encapsulated things I've been thinking I wanted to share it. Mostly because it's more clear than I can be, but also because it's a little meaty at this moment when I just don't have the time and energy to bring the writing A-game myself.

Love.

WELCOME TO HOLLAND

by
Emily Perl Kingsley.

c1987
I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.