Transitions are Tough

Anyone who has moved homes, changed schools, left one phase of their life for the next knows, transitions are tough.

As I type this post, I’m thinking of the 500 other things that need to be done after hitting publish. I know that this is a temporary situation and I’m SO excited for what the future brings as we shake up our whole lives but in the meantime, I’m tired.

Shuffling between two studio spaces, while still running a business out of one of them and fixing up the other has become exhausting. We’ve been in this mode for a few months now and I can feel my body responding to it. Waking up sore and exhausted from carrying boxes at the same time feeling weak from a lack of exercise. My daily 2 hour dog hikes have turned into 30 minute dog walks, my weekly visits to the climbing gym have turned into a once a month event. I find myself dreaming of time for yoga classes and long backpacking trips.

At the same time, we are also getting our home ready to sell. A place that we’ve lived for over 12 years, a place where we built our marriage, and a place that I built my business. That’s a lot to leave behind. We’ve spent weeks touching up cracks and painting over stains that we’ve lived with forever but now seem like eyesores. Throughout this process, we’ve also realized that the heart of our home has not been so much about the living space as much as the creative space. It’s the art on the walls, the well used work tables in the studio and the plants thriving in the garden that hold the highest value in our hearts.

All of this packing, planning, organizing and sorting has left little time for making new art, traveling or adventuring. Last year we left the country 3 times and made multiple trips to the east coast, not to mention dozens of camping and backpacking trips around California. This year, not so much. We’ve been on a self imposed travel ban so we could focus on making this big life transition. Now we have itchy feet and adventures piling up on the to-do list. We hope that letting go of the responsibilities of home ownership and being a little more nomadic about where we sleep while using our new studio (aka: Base Camp) as a touchstone will give us the freedoms for more art making, traveling and adventuring.

I’m normally not a very nostalgic person, but as I head into the final week of classes at my home studio, say goodbye to students and sign the papers to officially put our house on the market, I’m flooded with memories. The physical and emotional exhaustion of all of this change happening at the same time is very, very real. So yeah, transitions are tough but the knowledge that we have purposefully chosen this path tells me that it will all be worth it and that we are very ready for the adventures that lie ahead.

Looking forward to sharing those adventures with you…