Hello, excellent people! Now that I’m back in the land of seasons, I’m amazed at how fast things in nature change. One day I’m staring at eye-popping yellow and red leaves blazing off trees and bushes and then the next moment those fragile little hangers-on have been blown clean off their branches and are crunching underfoot. I love seasons, especially the ones with the most colors, although I also have a fondness for snowstorms because they feel like an excuse to stay inside and read. Why I need to have Mother Nature deliver an event in order to spend a day reading? Excellent question.

Any-who, circling around to the topic of being blown clean off a (metaphorical) branch: This last month there has been a lot of destabilizing going on in my life. Things that felt solid weren’t. Steps that seemed forward-moving proved to be no steps at all. Basic assumptions went sideways. All very eye-opening in a way I don’t particularly love, mostly because who does? “I want to be as confused, uncomfortable, and uncertain as is humanly possible” has said no one ever. I mean, maybe I see a hand waving way at the back telling me they’re into that vibe, but I’m quite sure I don’t know you. So stuff kept happening, and I kept thinking Cut it out. Stop blowing the leaves from my tree. It’s cold and uncomfortable. Here’s one thing about that, though. When everything’s fallen away, there you are—or rather there I am. Exposed in a moment that forces me to assess.

I was perfectly happy rolling along with all my blazing colors but yet (shakes fist at sky) apparently that wasn’t the plan in this moment. So just like during the wanders I take up and down these roads, now I can see clear into some places I hadn’t noticed before. Like there’s that shiny silver airstream parked deep into some woods where before about a half-dozen trees hid it. Then my mind churns: Has that always been there? Is someone living there? and, depending on my state of mind (creepy vs. pragmatic, which really has to do with cloudy vs. blue skies), what goes on in there?

Well, the same thing is happening in the crevices of my mind/soul now that all kinds of things have been blown away: Has that (thought, desire) always been there? Is someone (me) living there (or rather living all the possibilities there)? What goes on in there (this deep crevice I’ve tried not to deal with)?

I’m here to say I one-hundred-percent have zero answers to these questions, but I am thinking about them. When I’m perfectly still, I actually know some things have been wanting to answer back for a bit and I’ve kept them shut down. One of those changes (criminy that word is unsettling to me) is something that will affect you, my excellent reading people. In a few weeks, I’m going to migrate this weekly writing over to a new platform where there will be more goodies, specifically a project with Dennis will be attached to where you’ll get to see clips (little videos. in-motion moments) of him working the new land. Maybe sometimes I’ll be in the shots too. Who knows. I will tease the first one, though: Our new mail-person makes an appearance.

So stay tuned for all the info on that. And in the meantime, two things for these unsettled times: For the U.S. folx among us, I’m sending you as much peace as can be expected as we ride into this wild next week. The feeling of weariness and anticipation around Election Day finally happening combined with the sense that the national upheaval around that day will not be over for quite a while (I hope I’m wrong about this, but all signs point to no, not wrong) is excruciating so again, wherever you can find the solace, distraction, headspace you need (after you vote, naturally), I’m rooting for you. And if that means I don’t hear from some of you for a while, I TOTALLY understand that. Be good to yourself. I’m planning on doing the same. Also, remember U.S. people to turn your clocks back tomorrow. I’m going to use that extra hour to sit on the couch with as many of the cats who will have me (there are only two, so I’ve got a 50-50 chance) under a fuzzy blanket with a book and an occasional visit from D. (His happy place will probably be outside hooking up a thing or fixing a doo-dad or wandering around with some mysterious piece of equipment.)

I’m sending all good vibes out to each and every one of you, my friends, while keeping a heaping basket of the same in my heart as well.