For everything there is a season…

Every beginning has an ending and every ending has a beginning. At the beginning of this blog, I was a faithful writer penning short blog every other week for nine years. Some pieces were better than others, but all were given a quick edit by my dear friend, Sally. She was the first reader and she encouraged me to keep writing even when I didn’t find many readers. She liked the short pieces and the photographs that accompanied them.

This accompanying photograph is not mine. It is a photograph of Virginia Woolf’s writing desk. I studied the works of Virginia Woolf and wrote my M.A. thesis at Brown University. What I discovered in her novels was a writer who also believed in mystery, the beyond, the numinous, and the power of connection through art. I stretched my wings a lot through this complex person and writer. One of my first blogs was to revisit Virginia Woolf and to conduct an imaginary interview with her.

Now there are new places to explore. I am not yet aware of what they may be, but I am curious and excited about starting over again. There’s my 175-page manuscript that may or may not be worthy of an edit. Of course there are books to be read and music to be learned and sung. I just finished singing the Faure Requiem with my Lutheran choir and two high school choirs from Manasquan and Point Pleasant Borough. It was magnificent. Singing with 75 young people plus 25-30 adults was exhilarating.

While i was still living in Brooklyn, I created this blog with the help of a film maker and web designer named Lisa. She has since moved on to live in New Mexico. I too, moved to a new home more than 8 years ago to Asbury Park., NJ. Many thanks to you, my readers. I have enjoyed our time together.

Today, June 26, 2024, marks the 2nd anniversary of Sally’s death. As Doris Lessig said, “Whatever you’re meant to do, do it now. The conditions are always impossible.” I just celebrated turning 70 and I am aware of living in the present.

Virginia Woolf by her sister Vanessa Bell, 1912, National Portrait Gallery, London