Preparations and Changes

Early this morning when I was out feeding the horses, I heard squawking and calling from an unseen flock of birds just over the tree line. It was a familiar sound, but only in autumn. It was a sign that the time was indeed changing no matter how warm the weather felt. The birds knew and were gathering. My area in the Mid-Atlantic seems to be a fly-over state in the migratory path of many birds heading south. I enjoy hearing their passing calls to each other overhead and laugh at my terrier who maintains her air defense perimeter over the farm by running and barking at them. Other signs abound. The tips of some leaves are turning yellow, the corn stalks are dry and golden, the dark falls sooner and much faster, and the horses' coats have lost their sheen and are becoming fuzzy. Time speeds up for me each autumn. As if time is on a bobsled race downhill to December, I'm always a month or so behind.

This year, I'm preparing. I've decided that I will simplify my life as much as humanly possible in this era of plugged in/turned on and instead unplug. I'm avoiding Facebook (the monstrous time vampire that it is) and other social media robbers of time. I've already given up television, but now I'm going to take a hard look at all my activities and ask whether it feeds my spirit or helps others (or is necessary to sustain life...I'm not crazy). If not, it's going.  I need more time for writing and in order to write well, I need more time for reflection. That means feeding creativity with reading good books, trying new things, learning, and all the while maintaining a wonder at the world and our surroundings. Change is hard. It is sometimes exciting, sometimes stressful. I'm taking it slow. I'm slowing that accelerating bullet train that rushes to the end of the year and instead taking a leisurely stroll, hoping to see something new along the way. Care to join me?

In the spirit of change, here's the new cover of False Gods. Hope you like it. I'm working on a sequel, taking up the story from a different character's point of view. Please visit my website at www.lrtrovillion.com   and keep in touch.