Falling leaves.
Is it really mid November already? Time is moving at the speed of light. Teachers plan their lives by the school calendar; I’m no exception. It’s six weeks until Christmas and eight months till I move.
Instead of looking forward to baking and wrapping gifts, I’ve got ants in my pants to travel. I don’t want any gifts this year. The fewer possessions I have, the better. I’ve almost sold all my bakeware, so muffins and Bundt cakes and dessert loafs are a thing of the past. I’ve gotten rid of all my fall and Christmas decorations. I don’t have any wrapping paper or bows. No ceramic pumpkins. No turkey platters. No wreaths, Christmas lights or space heaters. For the most part, the gifts I give will be from the collection of objects I still have in my home.
This holiday season I will be visiting my daughter in California. We are both committed to maintaining a close relationship, but this year will be a pivotal one for each of us. She will be graduating from college in the spring to begin a new, exciting chapter of her life. I will be attending the last graduation ceremony at my current school before I cast off from the pier and push myself out into the wild, blue yonder.
As I walked home from school one day this week, a Lenny Kravitz song popped in my head and I want to share some of the lyrics with you. The song is called, “Fly Away”. It perfectly describes my feelings this week.
I wish that I could fly
Into the sky
So very high
Just like a dragonfly
I’d fly above the trees
Over the seas in all degrees
To anywhere I please
Oh I want to get away
I want to fly away
Yeah yeah yeah . . .
I am walking toward this goal of flight with a quiet force. I don’t talk about it much, but I think about it, and research it, all the time. The past few days I have anticipated making art again – in my new place. I’m so excited about the inspiration that awaits me: new architecture, new landscape, new people! I think my artwork is going to explode like it has when I’ve visited France, England and Turkey! I can’t wait to see what bubbles forth! Where will place be for me? Oh, I’m aching to know! I have now sent out a total of 33 applications! Good grief. This is more than the cumulative amount of applications I have ever sent out throughout my entire lifetime! In the dictionary, place means a portion of space available or designated for or being used by someone. Even though I sometimes doubt, I know that there is some space available and designated to be used by me – out there.
Where is your place? Have you found it yet?
Art Teach Travel 
Soooo excited for you and inspired by you my friend! I have been dreaming about doing this for so long. My time line may be a bit longer than yours but I know my time will come too! Meanwhile I appreciate the blessing of watching you forge your path!
Love your spirit beautiful lady! 🙂
Kelly, thank you! Your words encourage me so! I love your spirit too, sweet friend.
I am going to miss you SO much!!!
Likewise. Thank you for being such a good friend for so many years. xo
Splendida!!!!!
Welcome! Thank you so much for finding and liking my blog!
Dear Anita
Where is my place? What a wonderful question, is it not just a geographical one. I am so happy making films, having the privelige to work creatively with other creative people, being able to make ends meet with this work and working together with my husband. This is my place, this is home, all the rest is the place I live in, not unimportant, by no means, yet always secondary to me.
While you were selling your household, I was in the process of picking and chosing the interior design for our new small flat, taking out walls, building new ones, from special bricks, picking the tiles for kitchen and bathroom, sinks, toilets, showers, taps, floor boards, you name it. Very enjoyable was the visit to the tile shop, touching all the different materials and imagining how it would be to live with one or the other, how to combine them with each other and enjoying the endless possibilities. Finally I picked 5 different stone tiles from Italy to create a mosaik, handmade ceramic tiles from Spain, floor tiles from Germany and glass tiles from I don’t know where. The flat is situated at the outskirts of Berlin a lake and woods in walking distance as well as a really nice central street with small book shops, boutiques, cafes, bakeries, a cinema, restaurants and a central Church. I need 10 Minutes to the next underground station, where every 10 min a tram is taking me in 30 min to the inner city. It will quite be different from living very close to the center, but it is the place where I want to live, close to the buzz and close to the woods, which are particularly beautiful right now. It is all very stressful the whole moving thing and I hope and pray, we will manage everything in time.
Ah, yes, the big news, Michael and I are joining Val and Mark on their trip to Uganda next summer. This will be my exciting travel experience for the next year and I am so looking forward to see it all, meet the people and to visit the Gorillas in the mist. We hope to make a film there. We will see.
Lots of Love
miss you
Claudia
Oh, Claudia! It is so good to hear from you! Do you Skype by the way? We need to do that…tell me in an email your skype name. Your place – both the place you inhabit as an artist filmmaker and the place you are about to inhabit in the woods, close to nature, sound lyrically wonderful to me. I know it has been a transition for you to move your place from city center to outskirts. But this is how we grow; being in different places in our lives. Bravo to you! I think you are on the other side of the hard part. How exciting the news you share about Val and Mark. It makes me yearn to be with all of you! I do hope your Uganda trip is not at the same time I touch down in Europe. I’ve simply got to see your new place! Thanks for writing! xoxo