Sabbatical/Retreat

Happy belated New Year. Where have 16 days gone? After a lot of pondering I came to the conclusion that I didn't have a breakdown last November when I was ill enough to spend a couple of nights in the hospital; I had a breakthrough. Though, at the time it felt like I'd fallen into the deepest dark hole imaginable. I've been taking a personally designed sabbatical or what I'm referring to as Gail's Retreat 101. To that end I haven't been doing anything creative including reading favorite blogs, though, this morning I did stumble upon this blog.  So,  Gail's Retreat 101 involves inner work, deep and heavy, and much needed. My days are finally feeling pretty darn good which is a miracle in itself. After a long year of grief and despair to finally find joy again without it feeling fake is the goal for 2011. My word for the year is Possibilities, apropos to the collection of quotes I collected for my book. (I have 3 copies available for a lower price than Blub offers, if anyone is interested.)

I find it difficult to not create, but when I work with fabric or paint that's where my energy goes. So, after I put away the fabric and paints I didn't have a clue what to do to fulfill the need to create. During the 6 week long recovery from the hospital stint I started watching cookingchanneltv and got re-hooked on cooking shows. I love to cook. So, every couple of days I try out a  new recipe; better than going out and trying a different restaurant. Organizing the recipes in a spiral bound journal has been somewhat creative.

And then there is always the garden. I took the camera outdoors last week, don't hate me but the temps have been in the 70's to 80 today, and shot some photos  using the macro lens. The top photo of a spider web cactus was revelation to me; I hadn't noticed that the 3-4 inch tall plant was blooming. The tall skinny cactus had hit the roof of the patio and needed to be moved. What a chore that turned out to be. I knew that I couldn't possibly remove it from the pot and expect it to survive so I dug a hole to the middle of the earth and sunk the put into the ground. The pot will eventually crumble apart. The cactus grew 6 feet last year so I'm wondering how tall it will get this year. It has a tiny sprout growing from the bottom that is exciting.

That's it in a nutshell. I'll be back eventually. Take care until then.