The Key

 I spent Thursday and Friday in Charleston, soaking up all the love in the room when my people gather to celebrate an accomplishment of one of us. Most of the time, schedules are tight, travel is difficult, babies are too little, things change, but one thing is true, there is love.  Love is being sent, support is being felt, fun is being had.  Regan was "marvelous" just like Piper & Evy knew she would be. Joe had a great visit and we made 24 hours worth of memories to last a lifetime. (We have become genius at that, over the years.) 

David, Rosey, Zachary & Pearce were able to share on Friday, if just for a short time. 

I would watch my children shine forever. Lucky for me I'll be watching Lucas & Zachary on Friday while Rosey toils on crew. Regan will be on break so she'll share too. We'll squeeze in at least one family dinner. 

I'm grateful for the people I work with that all appreciate how much family matters. 

I know that my life is an embarrassment of riches.

The Secret Garden was visually themed around a key. The show was beautiful, but when the antique keys flew in and Mary Lennox chose the key to Lily's Garden, it is a metaphor for all of the choices we make. If we are exceedingly fortunate, as I have been, we choose the key that opens the door to the magical world of gratitude.

Random...I hate that word

2016

So far:

Piper Mae & Evelyn Alice Pelicano joined the party. (January 15)

I was offered and accepted a new position with the City of Fountain Inn. I am the full-time manager of special events. Fun change of responsibilities. I'm excited about a new opportunity.

David has changed jobs within his company. He will be taking on new challenges.

Zachary and Lucas are working closely on Our Town. Looking forward to seeing my boys together on stage in FIRE Theatre Co.'s first true drama. 

Regan is featured in The Secret Garden at the College of Charleston. I will be there opening night, this Thursday. Meeting my chosen brother for a 24 hour visit before David & Rosey join me Friday.

Progress reports are great for Lucas (Senior) & Rosey (6th Grade).

That's the "bullet". It's only February 23rd!

Details to follow. 

Happy Tuesday!

Purge

I have found that lately, I want to be lighter.  I saw a story about a "capsule wardrobe" and I couldn't stop thinking about it.  Those are the times I try to pay attention.  When something doesn't leave my sieve of a mind, I know it must be important to give some serious thought.

Lighter, in my case means, weighed down fewer by things and ideas that no longer serve my best self.
I have purged many people in my life that were better off parted from me, either for themselves, or for me, but gone, they are, and I haven't any regrets.  That is what leads me to the idea that I can certainly be as fine with fewer things, as I am with fewer people.

I know that when there is a big change looming, I get emotional, and my emotional go to is "I don't need anyone, or anything! I can do everything alone. WATCH ME!"  It is my way.  Always has been.
There are very big changes looming that happen to be occurring during my 50th birthday year, and my version of a mid-life crisis is probably going to be a smaller wardrobe, and maybe a few less dishes.

I have some really big ideas, and I think I'm not leaving room for them, thus, I'm stuck.
I have turned on to this "planning community" and it has lead me to believe that there is an under served segment of the population that needs help being creative in every day life.  I think that the inability to be creative is perceived, and that, if given the tools, and the freedom, we can all create something, even something as simple as a "plan".
More on this to come.  

My goal is to purge 10 pieces at least three times a week for the month of August.
Thirty things a week.  Clothes, Shoes, Scarves, Cups, Craft Supplies, things that are taking up space, emotionally and physically.  I'm at 20 for this week, so far.

This is a bit of a random post, but I feel the desire to share...
hope no one minds!  Something new is on the horizon, and I'm figuring it out, one old sweater at a time.

xo
C

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.

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"!

Saturday mornings are made for this...

There are fewer things better than a Saturday morning when the coming Monday is a holiday.

I sit here, at my little computer desk, typing away, knowing that I get an extra one of "these" this week.
Weekends are different during the school year than they are in summer.  The beginning of the Theatre Season coincides with Back to School, so the word "weekend" takes on a whole new meaning, anyway.
It's these Saturday mornings, when the house is quiet and I sip my coffee alone at my desk that I take a moment to be grateful for the weekend before me.

Last night was the first High School Football game of the Season.  Regan went there, in her car, no need for a ride from me anymore.  Milestones...
Lucas is forming a band with some of his friends from school, so he spends Fridays at all night Jam sessions, lately.
We have finally found a New York Style Pizza "joint" in a nearby town, so we hit it last night for pizza and beers to end our first full week of school.

Today is the North Carolina Apple Festival. It is part of what we do to welcome the Fall of the year and we'll attend.  It makes me want to wear boots and a sweater, but it is still 90 degrees in the shade in our region, so I'll use the Festival to whet my appetite for a visit to New York in October, where my boots and sweaters won't be so out of place. I'll stick with shorts and a t-shirt today.
Lucas has plans, so it won't be the five of us, just David, me and the girls.
Things are changing.
I was hoping for one more Apple Festival where we were "all together", but then I remember, Zachary has been gone for 9 years, so we haven't really all been together at the Apple Festival in a very long time.  "All together" means whomever we can gather, for the moment.
We are "all together" most Sunday evenings for dinner, and  that "all together" includes Mackensie, without whom, we can not be "complete".

So I guess, sitting here celebrating Labor Day Weekend, alone at my desk is appropriate.
As my family changes and goes on to lead lives that won't necessarily include me in all of  their plans, I'll be cooking up reasons for us to be "all together".
The trick is to make them want to pick apples in 95 degree heat, or eat funnel cake while sitting on the sidewalk near a grassy patch that is all filled with other funnel cake eaters.  Most of my schemes will be less elaborate than all that, and be limited to the Sunday morning text to Zachary, ("you coming for dinner tonight?") and hoping for the ("yes, of course,")reply.

Next Labor Day weekend, I'll be down another one. Regan will be at College.  So, this Saturday morning, in the quiet hours, *Rosey just walked in and turned on Sponge Bob* before anyone else awakened was made for this, thinking about the times when we are "all together" and appreciating every moment in between.

A bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils

Welcome back.
I must say that it was a fantastic summer with many great adventures, and memories were made.
Things slow down at the Theatre for the staff that isn't involved in all of the creative things, so the days were not harried, just the right kind of busy, for work.

We cruised to the Bahamas and spent a week beachfront at the Isle of Palms.  Vacations are wonderful.

I dealt with grief over the death of my cousin. That still pains me. I said my final goodbye to the person that gave birth to me, and that kind of  finality usually only comes with death, but not in our case.  It was a difficult final chapter of a very long, complicated story.
I even para-sailed in some weak attempt to set myself free of the things that were eating away at me, to no avail.  You can't get over grief, for the loss of the living or the dead, without walking through it and feeling it.
I did feel a little more brave after the flight, and I think it has helped me continue in the journey toward making some kind of peace with my sadness.  Some things are just plain sad.
I didn't spend a lot of time on social media, and I didn't speak to very many people on the phone, outside of my immediate circle.
I decided to begin my journey anew, with the intention of becoming lighter as I move forward toward other changes that are imminent.

A New Beginning...
This is the time of year I love most.  It is my New Year. I have decided to take advantage of the promise of a new season.
The beginning of the school year is filled with all the promise of a fresh start for my kids. In the movie "You've Got Mail", Joe Fox and Kathleen Kelly write emails to each other anonymously and one of those emails refers to Autumn in New York and Joe's urge to gift Kathleen a "bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils" if only they knew each other.  I love the image that phrase invokes. I can smell the pencils, and I can feel the air of a New York Fall each time I watch the movie.
Regan is a Senior, Lucas is a Junior and Rosey is in fifth grade.
We are on the cusp of some major changes for our family as Regan takes flight.
It's time to look at colleges, travel to auditions, and soak up every moment we have left before things change for good.
That's what I'll be writing about for now.  REAL LIFE.
Working through things "out loud" might help me make sense of the every day chaos and bliss that rule my world.
There is a lot going on here and it is all perfectly ordinarily extraordinary.
I've actually had requests for Blog Posts, so I'm going to attempt to oblige.
I was inspired today by a writer friend of mine that writes beautifully. She has a son the same age as Rosey. I love her blog, because she is honest and writes from her heart.
We have a lot in common, yet our lives couldn't be any less alike.

Aren't we supposed to find people that we can relate to, who inspire us to be better?   Shouldn't we all have the pleasure of knowing that someone hundreds of  miles away who happens to come from the same home town sees things through a similar lens as we do. Doesn't that make us feel less alone? Don't we love to have things in common with others.  Don't we need a tribe?  Some friendships don't last.  Some families don't really know how to be families. But we can find ways to connect with people on a level that gives us hope that we're not alone, even when we feel most like we are.
I have dreamed a dream of starting a new life, a new chapter, a second act.  I was prompted to remember by another writer friend that while I'm thinking of a new life, I'm living this life and I'm missing out on somethings  by not living in this moment.
I'll strive to live in the moment. I'll strive to share the story of these moments with the people who stop by this blog, and I'll hope that someone will read these words and be inspired to start over, to share something they've been longing to share, or just to take a moment and know that there is someone who struggles every day with the ideas that swirl around and that someone is trying to make those ideas take shape, if only so someone out there feels less alone on their journey.

...thank you for stopping by.