Times are complicated. Really complicated. When I was younger, things were complicated because of television and the news according to all of the experts. Then MTv came along. Things were moving faster than newspapers and 6 o clock news. People were more connected with the telephone and society was becoming a little more mobile than it was in my parents time. Foreshadowing of the mobile phone with pagers became commonplace even in rural towns.

Now, things are moving at warp speed. Technology changes faster than I can keep track of. When something happens a half a world away we can watch it happen livestream. With all of that brings more knowledge and more questions.

All that to say, at my age, I feel like I know nothing. I have so many more questions than I have answers these days. I have no idea where I am going or how I am getting there. So many things are in flux right now, I have no idea what is going to happen tomorrow let alone a year from now or 5 years from now. So no 5 year plans or retirement plans, just take it a day at a time.

Before you get concerned, I have no big bomb to announce. I haven’t been diagnosed with any thing recently, I was tested, and I have no job changes. But everything is so complicated in every aspect of life right now, it feels like one tiny little wrong move and it all comes tumbling down. I think many of us are feeling this and much of it started with the pandemic. Maybe its a time of great changes for us, just different from the great changes I have experienced when I was younger.

But there are several things that seem to never change and are the cure for all of the complicated stuff. I have been quilting and creating like never before and it is stuff I really like! I have been breathing deeply more and taking in quiet moments, nature and slow exercising. I have been finding my inner peace in the simplest of things that seem to touch my spirit. Things , in addition or making and art, that make me happy like the blooming flowers, fossils on the beach and collecting the recent Oui yogurt cups.

When things feel complicated,

when I have a cold and things feel complicated,

when I have a cold, things feel complicated and work is a nightmare,

when I have a cold, things feel complicated, work is a nightmare, and I have another funeral to attend due to Covid, I realize just need to stop and sit. Sit and sew. Sit and knit. Sit and watch the sun. Sit and look for recipes. Sit and lean into the moment to just realize how extraordinary things really are. It’s really not that complicated after all once I remove all the extraneous things from the equation.

In my mind, the more things change… the more they stay the same.

Vicki