When I first got bit by the writing bug, it was because of that spark that went off the day I stood staring at a shelf-full of my favorite books -- the ones that later became the basis for my Year of Reading Dangerously give-away -- and realized that they all shared a common underlying theme. The authors were all people I looked up to because they seemed to have figured out what it meant to be "living the good life." What I realized that day was that they all embraced the changing seasons, each in their own unique way, and their lives were better for it. This spurred me to go back and read the books again, highlighting examples of this "seasonality" concept of mine, and somewhere along the way things just clicked into place. I knew this was how I was meant to live, and I knew just where I was meant to do it.
I wrote a few goofy little articles about seasonality when I was still living in the 'burbs. They were about adding seasonal touches to your cooking and decorating, and about using perennials in your garden, so that it changed with the seasons. I envisioned them as a sort of tutorial for young people who were just starting out on their own, and I thought I might turn them into a little pamphlet called Seasonality: A Beginner's Guide to Living the Good Life. When John eventually set me up with that newfangled thing called a "blog", that's the name I decided to give it, and I included these silly stories at the beginning as a sort of pre-qual, to show how I got started down this path. John was the only photographer in the family at the time, so I did my best to come up with a few illustrations using my landscape design tools and markers.
When we bought this house and started coming here on weekends, I fell into the habit of going out on the porch to watch the sun come up. I discovered that things which were bothering me had a way of sorting themselves out there in that rocker, as I sat watching our delightful view change with the seasons. Also, the various adventures that occurred here would cause little stories to take shape in my head whenever I was out there - stories which begged to be shared with friends and family. In a way, they were a lot like those letters home I used to write when we lived overseas. I began putting them on the blog as well, since it was a whole lot easier than sending letters to everyone. Our transition from big-city-suburbanites to Hill Country characters involved more than a few mishaps at first, and it taught us a whole lot about good old-fashioned common sense ,which is why I eventually changed the blog's name to Seasonality: A Common Sense Approach to Living the Good Life.
Hard to believe we will have owned this house nine years come December, and that today is my five year blogging anniversary. An awful lot has changed in that time. We went from living in a big house with our two kids, to having a town house plus a weekend house, and then to just having this one. We went from both working and living together full-time in Houston, to John working in Houston, me being a volunteer here in Wimberley, and each having one kid live with us at various points, to both being retired and living here together as empty-nesters. My passions grew from decorating and gardening to include writing, local foods, cooking, veggie growing, art journalling, knitting...and the list just keeps getting longer! We went from feeling like we were invincible and would live forever, to facing up to the truth -- that our time here is limited, and best be savored.
Yep, if there's one thing constant, it's change, and the key to happiness is learning to embrace it, rather than fight it. Which is why my blog's latest incarnation is Seasonality: Embracing Change. Now all I have to do is figure out what new photograph or artwork I want to replace the banner up at the top with -- something which will embody that spirit. Any suggestions?
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