END OF SUMMER CHECK IN

My new life as a retiring social worker takes on a rhythm of its own. With more time available my creative juices stir with ideas for poems, short stories, projects, volunteer offerings and parties! The morning finds me puttering in the kitchen preparing breakfast for my grandson, making coffee, walking with the dogs around our lovely acre, full of sunshine, trees and shrubbery. When husband and grandson have left for their worldly responsibilities, the house and I are ready for classical music and I land on my sheepskin office chair.

Most pressing is editing my book for IUniverse: Medicine Rock. Is this the last great edit? I am appalled at what I missed in the last "last great edit!" Like doghair on the floor, there is punctuation, capitalization, grammer and formatting debris to attend to. (I'm not known for being meticulous.) Then, a weekly task, the newsletter for our local community sustainable agriculture farm (CSA), my trade for weekly incredible organic vegetables. Sunrise coming and sunset earlier is a double sadness: less vegetable growth, less outdoor play. The newletter has kept alive my abiding interest in local organic agriculture, and the food supply issue in general.

The spaciousness of my days offers a challenge for finances. I've purchased two 100-postcard packages from Vistaprint to send out advertising for my writing service, FRESH METAPHORS, and my social work business, Bitterroot Visitation & Mediation Services. In July the State of Montana decided to no longer fund Guardian Ad Litem appointments, which shifted my income stream, as has the "recession." But in my heart I know we'll be fine, and I now have the freedom to write as much as I want.

On an interior plane shifting is also taking place. I hope and pray it is taking place for millions of others as well. That is the detachment from national, religious and political alligiences and emphasis on humanity as a whole, regardless the greed, aggression and "evil" that arisen and continues to arise. Calling for humanity to awaken to the perils we face, however idealistic that appears at the outset, is my personal mission. But this is a BIG topic, one that is ongoing and complex, not one for a brief check-in. More later.

In the meantime gratitude for the freedom to express myself to the unknown reader, and to nurture my family and friends through a golden end of summer.