So I can finally see my floor again. I took out all the remaining books, which are now wedged beneath the sofa bed among other corners, etc. I only have 4 unopened boxes, and they are files, which await my purchase of a file cabinet.
In attempting to buy a file cabinet and another bookcase (after debacle of attempting to pick up a free one, I think I will instead get one from a store and have them deliver), I have ended up in the same confusion I did trying to pick a smart-phone. While there are no monthly contracts to consider, there is this issue of having to assemble them yourself, which I find daunting. This probably seems stupid to the average bear, but I do.
I am very tired now, but have a much cleaner place, up to and including changing the shower curtain liner, so feeling glad of that. I am wanting to allow for some kind of peaceful ringing in of the New Year no matter how I decide to celebrate the transition from 2011 to 2012.
My cat seems happy I am home, but once again Marietta was a great cat-sitter so he's not at all freaked out. He is now attempting to open a closet door, because he likes to open closets. Also, in case you don't know this, cats love cardboard. He is a much bigger fan of my boxes than I am.
Have been collecting many ideas from people who act and teach acting for my class and need to create that syllabus soon. Have so many good ideas, including my own methods, that it is an embarrassment of riches, but do need to figure out how to focus it. All the syllabi I was given are so wildly different, I see I have quite a lot of latitude, which is great but also a little scary.
However, now it is time to allow in these last two days of the end of the year, feel through it and allow this time to consider the tumultuous nature of this past year, lessons learned and how to move through the next one - not as a strategy board but allowing in the deeper bits. Rinpoche, the guy leading the retreat I may or may not do has a teaching on the website for centers devoted to his teachings in which he refers to how we perceive - erroneously - as 'stories' and 'cinema' - so of course I instantly liked him. I tend to agree. However, I don't know if I can get up for all the early morning sessions.
More on all this later...now, to bed...
Welcome to my blog..
"We struggle with dream figures and our blows fall on living faces." Maurice Merleau-Ponty
I am now transitioning into being married again with a new surname (Barclay-Morton). John is transitioning from Canada to NYC and as of June 2014 has a green card. So transition continues, but now from sad to happy, from loss to love...from a sense of alienation to a sense of being at home in the world.
As of September 2013 I started teaching writing as an adjunct professor at Fordham University, which I have discovered I love with an almost irrational passion. While was blessed for the opportunity, after four years of being an adjunct, the lack of pay combined with heavy work load stopped working, so have transferred this teaching passion to private workshops in NYC and working with writers one on one, which I adore. I will die a happy person if I never have to grade an assignment ever again. As of 2018, I also started leading writing retreats to my beloved Orkney Islands. If you ever want two weeks that will restore your soul and give you time and space to write, get in touch. I am leading two retreats this year in July and September.
I worked full time on the book thanks to a successful crowd-funding campaign in May 2014 and completed it at two residencies at Vermont Studio Center and Wisdom House in summer 2015. I have done some revisions and am shopping it around to agents and publishers now, along with a new book recently completed.
I now work full-time as a freelance writer, writing workshop leader, coach, editor and writing retreat leader. Contact me if you are interested in any of these services.
Not sure when transition ends, if it ever does. As the saying goes, the only difference between a sad ending and a happy ending is where you stop rolling the film.
For professional information, publications, etc., go to my linked in profile and website for Barclay Morton Editorial & Design. My Twitter account is @wilhelminapitfa. You can find me on Facebook under my full name Julia Lee Barclay-Morton. More about my grandmothers' book: The Amazing True Imaginary Autobiography of Dick & Jani
In 2017, I launched a website Our Grandmothers, Our Selves, which has stories about many people's grandmothers. Please check it out. You can also contact me through that site.
In May, I directed my newest play, On the edge of/a cure, and have finally updated my publications list, which now includes an award-winning chapbook of my short-story White shoe lady, which you can find on the sidebar. I also have become a certified yoga instructor in the Kripalu lineage. What a year!
And FINALLY, I have created a website, which I hope you will visit, The Unadapted Ones. I will keep this blog site up, since it is a record of over 8 years of my life, but will eventually be blogging more at the website, so if you want to know what I am up to with my writing, teaching, retreats and so on, the site is the place to check (and to subscribe for updates). After eight years I realized, no, I'm never turning into One Thing. So The Unadapted Ones embraces the multiplicity that comprises whomever I am, which seems to always be shifting. That may in fact be reality for everyone, but will speak for myself here. So, do visit there and thanks for coming here, too. Glad to meet you on the journey...
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