Now marking two and a half years on this beautiful island, it still enchants. I have planted a garden and harvested the produce. I have met wonderful friends and established our Crones Potluck which convenes monthly. I have entered into a rich and satisfying relationship at the Bow Sanctuary where I partake of yoga classes three times a week.
I am healthier and happier than I have ever been. Why has my decision to leave Seattle behind and move to a small remote community in Skagit County been so successful? Certainly, finding myself after living so many years in the shadow of a charismatic partner and satisfying work at demanding jobs kept me busy and often unseen. I think part of my move here, consciously or unconsciously, was a desire to extricate myself from the well-known, and well-worn persona I inhabited for nearly fifty years. It was liberating to be known as myself. Just me.
And the thing is, I really like who I am. I like being self-sufficient, self-motivated and entirely in charge of myself. Growing up in the 50’s. Marrying young. A wife. A mother at 20 and again at 23. A worker. All these labels fit and no doubt are familiar to many reading this. Still, now I have shed most of those labels. My sons are grown and one has made me a grandmother. Now, I have some new identifiers: single, happy, self-confident, fit, a published writer, a good friend, a loving sister, mother and grandmother.
This is where I am today. Where I go tomorrow will be the stuff of this blog. I hope you’ll follow along with me. I’d love to hear from you via the comment page. And if you’d like to purchase a copy of my memoir LIMINA, you can do that too.
