It is a week of change and spiritual heartburn, a new phrase from a post I read today that resonated with me:
“Our version [of change] is cooked and swallowed like something from McDonald’s. It’s Panta Rhei fast-food style, and we suffer an equal spiritual heartburn from the speed.”
Erik Brown on Medium
The final week of August, not normally a big deal because I don’t have to think about back to school, is a major transition week this year. Full of big change. I feel sick and it isn’t just that my morning cantaloupe might have been past its prime.
Today’s spiritual heartburn is worry about whether I can prepare myself properly for what should be a happy, wonderful, exciting journey ahead. But instead of feeling prepared for the adventure hurtling toward me, I need to finish projects, pack, clean house, and recover from an extreme weekend as described by the NYT:
“In addition to the lashing rains of a very rare tropical storm, firefighters near the Oregon border were battling a wildfire that grew by 2,000 acres overnight.
New York Times
And then the ground shook.”
Ready or not, I will attend a writer’s retreat rolled into a vacation, a road trip, and time away from my home base. And because I find that my writing capacity shifts when I do, I’m eagerly anticipating what this trip will bring. I plan to finish off several drafted blog posts, expanding on what didn’t make it into Issue 450 of The Drink Tank (which is chock full of articles by me).
But before I go, I’m experimenting with how my Substack and my blog will (or won’t) work together. This piece, about decluttering and hoarding both items and ideas, crosses the line between my writing about all things Douglas Adams and all things on the far side of 50. Thanks for checking it out.
What do you think?