Monthly Musings N°1
F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote “Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.” Autumn has always been a season of renewal for me. Whether it harkens the memories of a fresh academic year and the scent of new textbooks, pulling out my favorite boots and knits, or trying a warm, hearty recipe, fall brings along with it a sense of coziness, of inspiration, of endless possibilities.
My creativity seems to spike as we enter September. Ideas fly and pen hits paper. Fall has historically been a productive writing season for me, and every year I feel the pull back to a project I have started but not yet finished or even starting something from scratch.
I have a novel in progress I started several years ago (in the fall, of course) and around this time I get the yearning to return to it. I admittedly shelved it, because I am an excruciatingly slow fiction writer, and it often felt too daunting. I used to put a great deal of pressure on myself to finish it, but at this point I am trying to make peace with the idea that it may or may not one day come fully to life.
I decided in the vein of getting back into a regular writing practice, I would at the very least begin a monthly series of musings.
No matter the case, I decided in the vein of getting back into a regular writing practice, I would at the very least begin a monthly series of musings. Who knows what form that will take or if I will continue it – I can be rather whimsical – but I’m willing to at least give it a go.
To keep it simple at the start, I might just touch on life lately, what I’ve been loving, what I would do differently if I had the chance to decide again, what I am longing for most, or even what I have my sights set on for the near future.
What I am missing.
Those of you who have been following along for a while know we recently moved from our home of two years in the mountains back to a small condo in the city. While we are extremely happy in our new space, with the approach of cozy season, I do miss our library in our old house. We lovingly turned our loft into a hunt country inspired library with comfy oversized armchairs and a sofa, barrister bookcases, and a gallery wall of collected art. It was easily our favorite room in the house, and we spent a good deal of time there. In fact, in our final months, I think it’s accurate to say I practically lived in that space, surrounded by the scent of vintage and antique books and washed in magical light. I loved to hear the tap of branches on breezy days and note the changing of the leaves through the postage-stamp-sized apex windows.
Since we moved into a condo half the size of our house, we have yet to find room for our books. They are currently stored in book boxes in our coat closet. Our goal is to (hopefully soon) build out shelves in the closet to create a miniature library. In the meantime, trying to find books around here has been challenging, to say the least.
As the temperatures drop and I start to detect the first nip in the air, I find myself missing our old library, the perfect place to wrap myself in a warm blanket to get lost in a novel. I have no doubt we can replicate that here, but I am working on the details of how and when.
What I am loving.
You may also have detected some slight shifts here. Downsizing to minimal living has led me to focus less on decor and more on potential travel plans. While I enjoyed making our mountain house into a home, I was very intentional in decorating our new condo, and I don’t have a desire to change things around much.
A little known fact about the impetus of my blogging is that I actually began with the intention of focusing on travel. At the time, I had a corporate job that limited my ability to get away enough to sustain a travel blog, but now I feel as if I am coming full circle. We have not traveled much in the past few years due to the pandemic and all the changes in our lives since, but now it is time to get back to traveling.
With that goal in mind, I have been working on some travel articles, including how I am curating a capsule wardrobe for light packing and catching up on travel diaries I have been meaning to write.
Where to next?
My hope is to return to Europe to finally meet my husband’s family in the UK and Ireland, as well as visit some countries I have yet to see. Despite traveling to over twenty countries and all the states (with the exception of Alaska) in the US, I still have quite a few places remaining on my bucket list.
To sum it all up, my goal is to get back to reading and writing with more regularity and get back to plane hopping when the opportunities arrive. Here’s to exploring new worlds, whether from your favorite reading chair or a destination you have longed to visit.
