Well...overall, Fred and I have been searching for the ever elusive "balance" between family, home, work and recharge time. And just as a side note- I'm looking for a new word for work. "Work" sounds so blah- it has synonyms like "drudge","grind", "slog" and "chore"- to name a few. For myself and Fred, "work" isn't that at all- it's fun, it gives meaning and purpose to our lives- it enriches and supports us as people and it is how we give back to community/society. We need a new word - a new way of languaging that concept. Anyhow...At present, we have a bit more of a balance going than we have in recent weeks. The hardest part of the equation is our child. Marla Frazee once wrote me the loveliest note about balancing occupation and children. I am paraphrasing, but she basically said that your kids will be fine and they will respect you if you pursue your passion- it will teach them how to pursue theirs. Anyhow, our kid is needing a lot of remedial help with his schoolwork and it is difficult to keep an 11 year old who has such a cushy life motivated. I think that this is the challenge with every generation- you want to make life better for your kid, but when you do you create an artificial norm.
I have been working (insert positive connotation here) on new books- 2 of my own and 2 written by other authors. For my own projects I have been learning new programs like Illustrator to help me craft the images. The software is getting so good and so much more intuitive, but require so much time to learn and become fluent in. I am grateful for it though because working in conventional media half way around the world from my publishers creates all kinds of issues- if I did work in traditional media and sent finished art to NYC it runs a high risk of being lost or damaged, and working in traditional media in an extremely humid environment invites wrinkling and other moisture issues. If you have read Elizabeth Gilbert's book The Signature of All Things, there are perfect descriptions of what happens with paper and tropical climates.
As we approach the fall here in Mauritius I am trying to get out into the water more often before it turns cold. Last week I went out snorkeling on the reef. The experience is one that I experience in 2 distinctive ways- one is the wonder of it- a 3-d rainbow colored spectacular of fishes and corals or all colors and shapes, the second is this realization that this is a world that has a timer on it- the edges of some of the corals are white- a sign that they are dying from the acidification of the ocean, the fish are fewer and less diverse according to friends that have been snorkeling and diving here for years...I wonder sometimes as float in the warm salty water if the creatures I see will become part of the list of extinct creatures in my short lifetime...
I'm listening to an enthralling audio book The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey. It's a zombie story, but not the typical zombie story- weirdly enough, I am listening to it while working on the next Princess Posey book.
And then last week while walking around I found this village weaver nest on the ground- empty (thankfully). The male village weavers make multiple nests in hopes of attracting females to nest in them. There is a tree just down the road decorated with them. They sway and bob in the breeze. The nests are so intricate- the inside features a a weave of soft grasses.
