A walk after dinner

We are here, I know I've been so quiet here as I try to digest it all, and there is so much to share with you!
The words are slowly coming to me as each day I feel more myself again. The move was so much more like a birthing process than I expected, and I have felt totally out of my skin this past week.

Each day we are doing things to ground us in our new environment and for me the most healing thing yet was our walk after dinner last night. A five minute drive from our house there is an old fort on the tip of an island, where we explored,

and then followed the short trail down to the water,

I have always loved how the beach stimulates each sense, there is so much to find and to feel, it bring me right into my body, into the moment. For the first time in days I was not thinking about everything to unpack and organize at our house,

My parents have been here with us, they have been such a help in helping the kids search out adventure in the experience and to explore Charleston while Frank and I have been unpacking,

I've felt blurry around the edges this week, trying to take too much in at once and to function on all cylinders while exhausted. Even though we had time to anticipate this move, to think about it in each aspect, nothing prepared me for the absolute fact that we left our whole life in Brooklyn when we drove away. What we took with us were our belongings and ourselves.

Now I am relearning who I am in this new place, with no friends, plans and distractions to steal my focus. But there is also a deep hole where those things used to be.

There is a duality in this discomfort, that it is such a gift of clarity for the moment, allowing me to see each part of my self within the whole, to see what remains. To see everything around me with fresh eyes.

And the beach, oh the lovely beach, right here, so close by, with distant views and open skies,

We could get used to this!

New Painting: Begin

 Begin

 Tomorrow morning we close on our house in Charleston, we'll officially own our new home, and we'll move in tomorrow afternoon! So as we begin this new adventure I wanted to mark our transition with this new painting. This is the last painting that I made in my Brooklyn studio, and I'm thinking of it as a good-luck painting, full of symbols of abundance, joy and color, ah glorious color!

My favorite part is the little blue bird, flying off into the sun rise towards a new day, a fresh start,

A brilliant new beginning!

The Ending and The Beginning

 Our life is an apprenticeship to the truth that around every circle another can be drawn; that there is no end in nature, but every end is a beginning and under every deep a lower deep opens.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

New Painting: Thaw

 Thaw

A new painting about opening up to change, to opportunity, and glorious new beginnings.

I'd say that's pretty spot on for our life right now....what is keeping us going is holding on to our vision of the life that we will build in Charleston and all of the new beginnings that this adventure holds.

Today the packers will come to pack everything that we have not packed already, and then they come tomorrow to move everything out. We are living out of suitcases, and then yesterday someone stole Frank phone and wallet out of his studio, which is going to make these last two days so much more complicated as now he'll be running around replacing and canceling everything that was in there!

Feels like we are being cracked open to the core of who we are in these last few days, but the biggest thing that I have been feeling is the love for all of my dear friends here. That is the biggest thing,
Love.

My Brooklyn

Continuing our Tradition

Last week we continued our annual tradition of taking a family photo in the amazing bluebell field at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden...

It usually coincides with Mother's Day here in the states, and it is always the most welcome Mother's Day gift for me to have these beautiful pictures of my family! 

Three more days to go for us here in Brooklyn, I packed up my studio tonight, and have officially put my shop into "vacation mode" until June 1st. It is all starting to feel very real!

We've started saying goodbye to people. As strange as it sounds, I finally feel like this move is really happening, and I am feeling the grief of it all, but the thrill of our next chapter is lingering under the surface. Living in this duality is making me feel deeply and vibrantly alive.

"The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be the beginning." ~Ivy Baker Priest

Maypole

The month of May is flying by, two weeks have already past since we gathered with our Waldorf playgroup in Brooklyn's Prospect Park to celebrate our Maypole festival, welcoming in this beautiful springtime month. The section of the park where we gathered is tucked away in a small valley, full of little spots to explore,

a crumbling old fountain and overgrown landscape, with old bushes and trees, 

First we shared food on blankets in the grass, as we all wove our flower crowns,

Then it was time for the Maypole itself, where each child in the group holds a colorful ribbon attached to the pole,

and then they walk around the pole while singing songs about spring!

This celebration was extra special for us this year, as we so enjoyed sharing such beauty with our dear friends, 

With five days to go until our move, we are drinking in every moment!