First trip to Brooklyn last weekend with my family and what a wonderful time we had. This bridge in the Japanese Garden at the Botanical Gardens seems a fitting metaphor for crossing over into the fourth quarter of life surrounded by beauty.
A year ago, as I celebrated my 74th birthday, I realized I was entering my 75th year of life, both a milestone and a bridge to the fourth quarter of my life.
It takes the earth 365.256 days to make one complete circle around the sun and I decided to enter this new chapter of my life with more direct engagement and appreciation for the cycles and seasons that unfold around me in nature. This entry year into the fourth quarter of my life has given me that opportunity, and I am loving it.
Discouraged after the pandemic, I closed my gallery, rented storage space for my studio equipment and easels and moved into a spare bedroom at home. Space didn't permit working large.
I considered this a challenge - although I was in a transitional space inside and a small one outside, I knew I could reframe this time as an opportunity for new ideas to emerge, free from the pressures of marketing and sales as indicators of success or achievement. I could take my time to listen to my inner guidance, set a more organic and natural pace, and follow the bread crumbs of inspiration as I had never totally allowed myself to do before.
I decided to make 75 abstract small works to explore new ideas and directions during my 75th year and then gift them at its end. Rather than try to select a specific piece for each person, I decided to complete them, seal them in their envelopes and then pick and label them without seeing which one was going to whom. I would set the intention that each person would receive something just right for them. If someone didn't particularly care for what they received, they can regift the piece to someone else and keep the sentiment of appreciation flowing.
Right now, all the pieces have been professionally photographed and uploaded into a new gallery on my website. I am working on locating people and getting their addresses, since I have lost touch with many. It feels ceremonial to do this gathering and gifting and I am savoring it slowly, not rushing it. There will certainly be some people I can't locate, some envelopes left over and I hope to be able to do some giveaways through my blog until the gifting process is complete.
If this whole process could have a theme song (and why not??), it would be Seasons of Love from the Broadway musical Rent, so here it is, my gratitude theme song for the many wonderful people and experiences my life has been filled with and a wish for many, many more.
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