I started the new year without trips on the horizon, at least in the near future and for paid work. Rather than being a source of worry these blank calendar pages have been a delight. Staying home, getting up whenever I want, going to the gym whenever I want, going to bed whenever I want, no more ‘school nights’ – I love it.
We are settling in for the long cold winter after the holidays and after a short trip to Holland to have our annual Old & New Year’s dinner with my siblings and share our good wishes for 2020 with them in person. Holland was cold and clammy with the high humidity and cold. Even though not as cold as we are used to in New England, it is the kind of cold that chills the bones. We visited with friends and family, celebrated the year’s good things, ate Dutch, Swiss and Indonesian meals and snacked in between on fries, herring, drop and other sweets. All this added about 5 pounds to our girth that we are still trying to lose.
Our days back home have taken on a quiet rhythm now that the PT sessions are over and we are done, mostly, with the frantic pre-holiday schedule. I have only a couple of coaching commitments left, after one of my clients felt confident to let me go. A good thing I suppose. I am finishing up one last contract with MSH for work in Bamako and Niamey before it gets really hot over there.
The India work is still ‘in the works,’ so to speak, with no clarity about when it may move again. I orchestrated my second proposal (as a free agent), and produced something reasonably compelling in three days, bringing together a team from three continents (Asia, Africa and North America) to contribute to a larger DFID project that aims to help independent media in 3 countries, in Asia and Africa, to stay independent and do their good work. It’s a very long shot, but it was fun to lead the effort using WhatsApp, Google Docs and Hangout. Most of the team members had never met before – it’s a trust fall if ever I saw one. If, by some miraculous or heavenly intervention we are selected I have some teambuilding to do.
In the absence of travel Art has moved up from its fourth position to number one. Sita, Tessa and I made glass swizzle sticks, a delayed Christmas present, in our local glass workshop, the Bubble Factory in Essex. We are ready for summer and swizzle our G&Ts with our creations. Axel came along to document the creative process. In the meantime Axel continues to perfect his technique of printing on silk, remaining in his geranium phase, making large pieces, more stole than scarf.
Enjoying doing Art as a family I promptly signed us all up for a fall weekend course at Snow Farm in western MA. Sita, Tessa and I will be making wooden spoons and Axel will take the Monoprint class. At the end of that weekend we will be celebrating Sita’s 40th birthday.
In the meantime, Sita and Tessa continue to make me proud. Sita with her extended networks of extraordinary people who are actively changing the way we work and talk, and have gotten very creative in transforming loose groups of individuals into communities. She gave an interview that articulated better than I could, how this happens. Tessa was the only one heeding our Christmas rule of only home-made gifts, and showered us all with the fruits of her cooking talents: burnt onion jam, pickles, tomato sauce, elderflower syrup, chili oil, macaroons, truffles and fudge brownies. She’s picked up more clients for her graphic design business which means less time for cooking and baking.
Sylvia's Journal 
0 Responses to “Art times”