Today I write from a comfy chair situated in the corner of my office. A fat stream of sunlight beams through the window and provides me with an immensely satisfying feeling of warmth and contentment. I’ve long suspected that the lack of sun during the winter months affects me in ways which I do not welcome. I  know however that it is a fleeting thing, these winter doldrums . . . temporary in nature and ending with the flowers and rebirth of Spring.  But despite the transitory nature of the days of dark, who wants to slog through the winter in a slump? This year I’m taking early measures to combat SAD.

On Nov 18, Richard Hollant wrote a post at Felt & Wire on the topic of gratitude. I learned about Richard’s post via Facebook where he asked family, friends and associates to comment about “thank yous” that we have received that have meant something special to us. I thought and I thought. I thought some more. I could not for the life of me remember receiving a special “thank you”. It made me rather sad. Furthermore, I couldn’t think of a recent time when I had sent a special thank you. Why is that?

Who is Ed Bartlett? Marine. Football fan. Music lover and social media advocate. He carves pumpkins with a chainsaw and is a guy who described being laid off as “perfect timing.” If you live along the Connecticut shoreline you may know his name because in just over one year, Bartlett has made it his job to pull together the people, artists, bands, and businesses of Connecticut.

Laid off from Linquist Builders Supply in March 2009, Bartlett wasn’t upset about it. His career had been successful and made him a good living, but it wasn’t until he started a Facebook page called Shoreline Out and About that he found his mission.

It had gotten to the point where I was unable to complete a thought or a task. This was so unlike me that I wondered if perhaps there was something physically wrong. Communications poured into my life. Emails on my desktop, laptop, Ipod and cellphone. SMS and voice messages. Phone calls, events, social media and news reports. Before I knew it, my day was done and all I had managed was to keep up with comms. I was getting tense and despite my attempts at giving every project my upmost attention, my day was becoming a patchwork of triage.

Featuring Ann Willoughby at Billings Forge Community Works, Hartford Connecticut

As creatives, we put design thinking into practice every day with clients. But, what happens when we apply that thinking outside of the office to other places and spaces? Inspiration that leads to transformation.

AIGA CT, in coordination with Sappi Fine Paper and Billings Forge Community Works, invites you to spend an evening with nationally respected designer Ann Willoughby of Willoughby Design as she shares stories of unique spaces and how they deepen our work and play, change lives and shape a community. This event includes dinner of handmade pizza that you and other guests will create with the wheat grown and harvested (all by bicycle!) by Billings Forge artist-in-residence Ted Efremoff of Bread Cycle Works.

Next weekend, October 16th, I’ll be taking a blanket, a warm woolen sweater and a picnic basket to The Sanctuary at Shepardfields in East Haddam Connecticut. My plan is to spend twelve hours unplugged (sorta), writing in the sunshine, and listening to the 14 bands which are scheduled for the Sanctuary’s Local Music Tribal Summit. I can not wait. The day should prove a wonderful mix of music and friends.

This summer, my son Kyler and I created an oasis (what we call the awaysis) in our backyard. It was a spot lovingly chosen under an apple tree and looks back into the woods behind our house. We have a huge variety of birds that visit (hummingbirds, and the Red-Tailed hawk being my favorites). There are flowers, butterflies and dragonflies. Kyler and I hung wind chimes, geraniums, and purchased the best glass top writing table we could find. We set up two chairs for the table and two lounge chairs for relaxed reading. This place is our escape. This place is where we go to do our writing and thinking . . . and a bit of wine drinking.

A week ago, I posted Facebook that I was smudging my house. Many people were really interested in that and I was surprised to find out how many of my friends also smudged or had an interest. Fielding a good many emails and Facebook inquires I thought it might be fun to write a post that would explain why and how I smudge. I’m not an official authority on smudging, that’s for sure, this is simply my process and one I’ve culled together from various readings and resources over the years.

So as promised, here is my post on smudging.

Here we go…