Half way across the continent and back again. 

It’s good to be back home again.  

Delving my hands in dirt, blanketing the roots of my first cool-weather crop in a freshly tilled plot of land.

The smell of earth and metal fresh on my fingertips as ideas unfurl like butterfly wings back in my studio.

Life’s amazing plethora of color, texture, and pattern burning in my mind.  

Fodder for the imagination.

Did I forget to mention that I quit my desk job last Wednesday? In preparation for my final chapter of four years with Virginia’s judiciary, I may have forgotten to write you much these past few weeks.

They threw me a most generous exit party equipped with a gi-normous cake, presents galore, and an open house for the entire building to eat cake and bid me a merry farewell. For my last lunch with the front office, the ladies treated me to my favorite brunch at Cafe Gutenburg. A girl couldn’t have dreamed of a lovlier send-off to propel her with love and excitement for the journey ahead.

Sometimes a girl just knows it’s time for her to fly. And this little birdy has let the wind lift her wings for a new adventure.

In the fall I will be going back to school to reaquaint myself with an old flame that bears a hundred names: holistic health, alternative healing, eastern medicine, naturopathy, herbal healing, holism, mind-body wellness, homeopathy, spiritual healing, and therapeutic touch. Addressing both my psysical, psychological and spiritual well-being, so that I may, in turn, help others, I have decided to become a massage therapist.

I start the program in September. Until then I am full throttle wielding my hammer and torch, working from home, selling in my Etsy store, and at weekend festivals, developing my number one passion, my jewelry biz, Dream Spiral Art.

I must admit, though, I am a little scared. Sometimes when the heart has desired something so precious for so long, it is frightening to finally embrace it.

The unknowns jut out like jagged rocks along a road of mountain switchbacks. But I know that perspective is not achieved when dwelling at the bottom so it’s time to put on my hiking boots and begin the ascent.

POST SCRIPT: All birdy photos are compliments of my bird-man-in-residence (the one who really makes my wings soar), SMB.

Two nights ago, with these questions burning in my mind, I randomly opened “The Prophet” and my eyes landed on this exerpt:

“Work is love made visible.
And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.

And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man’s ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.” – Kahlil Gibran

Speaking of work, I can’t wait for my studio day tomorrow so that I can share some of my new (jewelry) work with you!

Why? You ask.

Because it looks like we are going to stay a while. Not only have our azaelas and hydrangeas finally begun to take root, but I have to admit, that I have been blooming here, as well. Call it a biproduct of caring for the space between and around these knotty-pine paneled walls, but for the first time in my 3 years living here, I’ve truly felt attached to this place. It is no longer just a transitional dwelling. It is our HOME. So we are tailoring it to our needs and fluffing the nest, so to speak.

Also, it must be mentioned that on Wednesday, my parents fly in for their annual week-long visit with us here at Chateau Beck. It’s not that my parents really care what state the old farmhouse is in, but it certainly motivates us to spruce the place up to make their stay more comfortable.

So here’s what we’ve been doing…

SMB not only scraped the paint off all the windows, but he also reglazed them, which is necessary for maintenance, he tells me.

While SMB did that (I am scared of heights), I stayed safely on the ground, touching up trim and painting the floor of our freshly screened-in porch. Thank goodness I am marrying a carpenter, who did all of the framing and screening and hanging of doors, while I was the master painter on this project. He works on the big picture and I do the details. Speaking of details, after the floor was painted we decided to splurge on a new set of patio furniture.

On Thursday afternoon SMB assembled the furniture, so when I came home from work, I was able to put my feet up and enjoy a cold one outside in a mosquito-free haven! Even the kitties got to come out and enjoy the nice spring weather with us.

Well, all but Spout, she is still a little tentative about all the new noises of the outdoor space, but she does peek out her perky white ears from time to time.

I get the bug (so to speak) about twice a year to really tidy up the studio. This involves a lot of vacumning as the ladybugs, spiders, and stink bugs are quite attracted to my sunny workspace during the cooler months.

Although it only took me a couple of hours to tidy up, I couldn’t help but question if it was a productive use of the one day a week I get to work in my studio. I did manage to finish up a commission for the amazing Judie and ship out a few other packages, but one day a week is not much time for the creative muse to bring my metal dreams to life.

While cleaning my studio, I thought about John R., a jewelry store owner who I interned with while in college. John’s shop was messy, messy, messy! Crusted white flux and acid spills blossoming like fractals from every surface of his workbench, dirt, dust, polishing grime floating in the air, hand tools strewn about. I was amazed that he could find anything in his shop. But he did.

When I asked him how he could work in such a messy space, he told me a story about one of his jeweler friends. The friend’s shop was always immaculate, everything had it’s place, the shop vac ran daily. But the friend spent so much time keeping the shop clean that it left him with little time to work on commissions. Before long, the friend’s shop went out of business. John’s shop may have been messy, but he always had customers coming and going.

In the words of Dr. Seuss, “life is a great balancing act.” You’ve got to keep your studio clean (your lungs will thank you), but know when it’s time to put the vacumn away and pull out your favorite hammer!

(And, yes, I am very aware of my dorkiness unveiled in this self portrait).

I discovered Virginia’s motto, “Virginia is for Lovers,” to be quite true, in fact. On January 21, 2009, while sitting by the fireplace in our 100-year old farmhouse, my boyfriend of 3.5 years, asked me to marry him!

Michael and I met in May of 2005 when I decided to relocate from my hometown of St. Louis, MO to Richmond, VA. I was interested in pursuing my MFA degree and, although I had applied for the graduate program at VCU in Richmond, I hadn’t been accepted. The strange thing is that, although I was accepted into two other graduate programs (CSU and SCAD), a string of ‘meaningful coincidences’ left me with an overwhelming desire to move to Richmond instead.

I decided to move to Richmond to take undergrad classes at VCU and reapply for the graduate program later. So I contacted the then-head of the metals department, Jim Meyer, and arranged to fly to Richmond to meet with him. I was only in town for a day and a half and had to, not only set-up classes with VCU, but also, to find (and sign a lease for) the place where I would live when I moved half-way across the country.

As fate would have it, the day I met with Jim Meyer at VCU also happened to be the day of the Genesis Design competition held for VCU’s metal/jewelry students at Schwartzchild Jewelers. Jim invited me to the opening and it was there that I met Michael.

Six weeks later, I loaded all of my possessions into a medium-sized U-Haul truck, and with the help of my brother, I made the cross-country trek to Virginia. Michael and I had talked on the phone and emailed almost daily during those six weeks after we met, so when I finally arrived in Richmond at my new apartment, he was there waiting to help me carry my belongings up three flights of stairs in the mid-summer heat.

I am truly blessed to have met my life partner. And I must say, from my perspective, Virginia has definitely lived up to it’s motto: “Virginia is For Lovers.”

Here’s a pic of our wedding rings - one of a kind pieces, designed by C. James (Jim) Meyer himself.

We are getting married in Virginia on May 22, 2010!

Ruminating on my current fate, stuck indoors on a sunny day, I relate to this quote:

“How long can men thrive between walls of brick, walking on asphalt pavements, breathing the fumes of coal and of oil, growing, working, dying, with hardly a thought of wind, and sky, and fields of grain, seeing only machine-made beauty, the mineral-like quality of life?” ~Charles A. Lindbergh, Reader’s Digest, November 1939

As much as I enjoyed wandering around Savannah for my birthday weekend (even bumping into Ruben Studdard in the hotel elevator), I enjoyed even more, being able to share the experience with my most kindred spirit, and best friend, Michael, knowing I had taken the right path all along.