Finding place in a shifting world

Seeking solitude or simply stepping back from the hectic pace of one's life isn't uncommon. In fact, I suspect quite common as the world shifts and our lives seek greater balance in what some interpret as turbulent times.


As some of you know from previous posts I spent the better part of a decade in the Ithaca, New York area before heading south. An era before recessional trends and gray hair. In this rally into my golden age I find I am a constant interloper of the Finger Lakes. I give myself permission constantly to hold this region tight while also keeping my feet firmly planted in the sands along the coast of South Carolina. As if placing myself in the lush natural surroundings means I'm cheating on the wide swing tides of the Lowcountry.


It's the places I find myself occupying during these retreats that make it sweet...

The City of Ithaca has successfully completed a reinterpretation (repair) of its Commons where a young mayor (Svante Myrick) brings his youthful enthusiasm to the concrete and civic endeavors found in his backyard. From Hip Hop concerts to public coffee talks with the local police chief to cutting the ribbon on another new entrepreneur's business. What one individual does makes others take notice. Check out the mayor's parking space at City Hall, here.

An uncommon space and constantly evolving is Mimi's Attic. One need not be in the market for their wares, simply checking out the staff's talent to recreate living spaces on the shop floor every day is entertainment enough on any given day. In my mind, no one in the interiors market has anything on the sharp marketing and design skills of this team.

Then there is the Meeting House at Boiceville Cottages, a common lodge where members of the community can gather either serendipitously or in planned celebration. I've met some remarkable people simply by spending a few hours a week in this community space. Some weeks it's a graduate student writing a dissertation, others a book club discussing their latest read, or a yoga class bringing everyone to center and sometimes it's simply young people parking their bicycles on the curb to grab a quick cartoon.

Spending time with James Rada in the Roy H. Park School of Communications at Ithaca College in planning to bring students to South Carolina in the days leading up to the primary in February 2016 gives me the chance to engage in my home state even when away. James accompanied students to Washington DC in 2013 as they covered the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington for NBC and PBS Newshour. In March 2015, he joined Ithaca College students as they travelled to Alabama to cover the 50th Anniversary of Selma for NBC News. They will come to South Carolina in 2016 to shed light on the new and old south during a key democratic process. I'm proud of my alma mater for interpreting the experiential nature of its curriculum as key to its students success and lucky enough to have the time to share in the journey.

Discovering my place in this world simply by being where I am.

Pond Life

A body of water, whether fresh or salt infused, immediately reminds me how complex simplicity can be. Above, below and even around it natural life teams with activity. That is very much what I found here while retreating at Flat Bottom Pond in Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts. 

A wide variety of birds announce daylight's entry whilst casting their melodies across a landscape glistening fresh with dew. The course of the day continues the same until evening heralds a shift. Once night has taken over, pond frogs replace the birds and lightening bugs add a twinkle to the darkness. Each day the same, but no less brilliant than before.

A bowl of simple pleasures

Everything Grits
Waffle House~Port Royal, SC

So many times our lives become filled with appointments, expectations, tasks, routines and promises that we spill ourselves out endlessly over the rim never really pausing to enjoy a full bowl of simply ourselves.  And when this continues to happen we find the necessity to retreat to reconnect to our true desires in living this life.

I rather relish these moments of becoming a recluse to my own whims.  I do not dally in their unfolding. I simply find what matters most to me in this middle life craze. That's me, myself and I. I need the best of me to forge ahead, not everyone and everything else I garnish myself with along the way. Those things and people are/were important and meaningful, but they do not make my dreams reality nor emote my truest desires.

Leaving behind the brandishing of titles and the conquering of monumental odds was no easy task.  I rather liked those aspects of myself and so over time I've wielded them, released them, wielded them again only to cast them aside one final time.  I find I'm more relevant now.  Relevant in that my instincts and desires fit into a far more important role that competes with no one, relies on no time clock and simply allows me to just be.

So I'm staring down at this breakfast bowl of grits, sausage, egg and cheese thinking "this is the best of everything." But I would say the same were it just the grits, just the sausage, just the egg or simply the cheese.  Any one of these singularly would make my day complete.  And so on the days when I have it all I'll enjoy it, but the days when its just me I'm far more likely to be happy.