Nashua

I spent the weekend at the annual New England Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators conference in Nashua, New Hampshire. It came on the tail end of a tough month.

The best part of the three days was a pristine, quite hotel room to myself (an oasis away from the Grand Central Station that is my house when Karl's theater company is in production and I'm trying to meet deadlines), and the trip up and back, done in style with a Piper Arrow thanks to Brett.

On Saturday I gave a new presentation on children's book illustration with a slideshow of my work and influences. A small technical glitch between my laptop and the hotel's projector rattled me more then it would have had I not been so worn down. The next day I was unpleasantly ill and in an emotionally difficult 6 hour writers' workshop.

Until now my 4 year experiment in following synrchronicity (which is what this blog is about for those who haven't noticed yet) has been smooth and easy. I've been perfectly content with the feeling of being led which has never let me down. I've found myself in just the right place at the just right time with just the right people a hundred times over, perfectly prepared for the next unexpected adventure.

Now there is so much calling me that I keep crashing trying to honor them all. This weekend made it clear I have to do something about it. A little more sleep should be the first step.

A scrap of paper on my wall, a poem, by my first beloved minister, Thomas E. Ahlburn:

Out of all this will emerge a form
Contrary to what we may have thought
Or what we might be thinking
There was no mold
To make our lives this way
No island from which to examine the stream
No way for the water to examine itself