Jul 25, 2015

Beautiful things.

This week I plan to occupy my mind with beautiful things. 
The ocean. The family. The historic city of Charleston and it's charms.
Good food. 
Relaxation. Conversations and laughter.
Technology plays a part. Browsing Pinterest or searching Instagram for people with interests similar to mine. Pretty things.
Interesting things.
My books include Gift from the Sea, by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. I've carried and notated in this copy on every beach trip since 1999. I take it to the sand and think about how things change and stay the same while I read the prose that speak to me as my best self. I would aspire to simplify as the author describes.
Big Sur, by Jack Kerouac. Just because it's Kerouac and Lucas gave the book to me.
Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert because she writes as if she is looking in my eyes over coffee talking about the deepest connections between real people. I don't get much of that in real life. 
I also grabbed Diane Keaton's Autobiography and threw it in my bag. I love autobiographies. I try to read one every summer. 
I'm planning to use up each of my 7, 24 hour chunks of time to be immersed in things that inspire me.

We arrive at our Beach House by 4:00 today and I'll get my toes in the sand and my eyes on the horizon. I love summer vacation.

Jul 24, 2015

Embrace what is true and let the rest fall away!

What a year, since I've posted.
What a fantastic, year!

David and I discussed at the beginning of 2015 how it was a big year for our family.  I would turn 50.
Regan would graduate High School.  Rosey would finish Elementary School. Lucas would be launching his Senior year of High School the day his big sister graduated.
We knew there would be family visits for the graduation.
We knew we would travel to NYC to celebrate mine and Joe's birthday, together, in the homage to our now, 47 years of friendship.
We knew that Regan, Zachary and I would all be participating in Into The Woods to end the season at the Theatre, and that it would be Regan's final show with the Company.  Mackensie and Lucas were on Crew, and David and Rosey made it to the show twice, so the Pelicanos were, together for the joy and the tears of this milestone.

Here is what we didn't know.  We didn't know that on Father's Day, after the curtain closed on the final show of Regan's final season at FIRE Theatre Co., Zachary and Mackensie would gift David with the news that he is going to be a Grandfather.  By association, it was a gift for the old Grandmother too!  Even on that very day filled with emotion, we couldn't have known that we would find out on the following Tuesday, that we were going to be Grandparents X TWO!  We are happy that our family is growing and that our dream of growing old together is actually coming true.
(Maybe the growing old part is happening a little faster than we had hoped!)

I can't remember another time in my life when I have so viscerally felt the transition in my bones.

I feel like it is time to change something, in a tangible way to embrace this new stage in our lives.
It can't be hasty, but it must be true.
I have only been 50 for three and a half months, and I feel like I've really begun ACT II.

We are leaving for a Beach Vacation and it will be the last time we are all together, for sure, for a Summer Trip.  Things change.  The kids could have jobs next Summer that prevent them from joining us for the whole week.  Zachary and Mackensie will be relatively new parents of seven month old twins. We'll be ready to see Lucas off on his College adventure, as Regan will be on the way to her Sophomore Year in the summer of 2016.
Things change.
I've changed.
I've changed since the first time I sat in front of this computer and thought I'd "blog,"... "this" isnt' the same as it was in 2009, but yes, "I'm really doing it, whatever it is that challenges me, or makes me content in my world.  I'm learning every day about what it is like to live in the moment, after having shed many of the ideas and, frankly, people  that held me back.  So far, 50 has been fantastic.
I expect it to only get better!


As Little Red exclaimed in Into The Woods, "I'm excited"!