the ocean and the shore

It is the end of stuff, it is the beginning of stuff (with apologies to Dickens)...Joe, my daughter's beloved high school and private studio art teacher, is shipping off to NYC to pursue a master's degree. Good luck, Joe! That's all he needs-he's got talent to burn. Beck turned 18 today and starts the beginning of a "legal" existence. She also starts college next week, going after a culinary arts career. (She'll be putting her creativity to work with frosting, batter and dough...uh huh...I feel a weight gain coming on!) My baby is fluttering on the edge of the nest. My oldest, Dena, starts back to school after a break for physical and emotional recharge, and continues to chase her dream in the world of fashion design, though it may translate as Kermit and Miss Piggy-she wants to design puppets! It isn't easy being green. But if anyone can chartreuse, she can.

And me...back to school, too, into the cyberworld studies and the office. I will find a creative outlet, but I need to work. I've started a band, or it started itself, so I'm back to performing-a small venue, people who really need worship music in their lives. Very cool. We had our first "in house" practice-literally, in our house, last Thursday, with cats roaming around, doors open and neighbors sitting outside on porches within earshot. Celebrate Recovery starts in our local town after almost a year of trying. I'm praying it is the start of great things for people with broken lives. The end of the dominion of substance abuse in this poor little town.

Brandon got his laundry job and we're looking at the downward slide of his incarceration. Change is in the air. Completion of the old, the start of new things. One starts from the other and takes off, only to become an ending itself in time. But for now, here we go.