A Message to My Friends: Joy Juice
On a recent week-end escape to Napa Valley Wine Country, I was treated to a luxurious aroma therapy massage. It began with the masseuse allowing me to select my favorite oil fragrance. There were numerous choices. I could detect sweet lavender, acidic orange and lime, cooling pine and peppermint, spicy vanilla, delicate summer roses and an unusual pungent floral. I chose the last one and the masseuse immediately commented that very few people selected this fragrance. “It is called Joy Juice and it is supposed to inspire laughter and freedom from responsibility,” she said.
I could not help but think that the universe was trying to convey a personal message to me. For the past six months I have been considering the question we so often pose to children. “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Or as a more mature friend mused, “I am struggling with whether I should save the world or go out to lunch with friends.”
Sadly, last winter seemed to be filled with closures. However, this spring some wonderful opportunities are beginning to emerge. I have discovered my latent interests in cooking, writing, drawing, reading, exercising, gardening and traveling. Now, happily there seems to be a new set of priorities in my life.
My professional creative life has also begun to evolve through the winter dormancy. With the coming of spring, my name has begun to appear on class schedules at Old World Designs and Exclamation Point. Summer and fall programs at the local American Needlepoint Guild, Embroidery Guild of America and the National Needlework Association are featuring my creative lectures.
SPOOKY STITCHES, my haunting Halloween edition, was introduced in January, 2011. Sales have exceeded all my hopeful projections. Although SPOOKY is my most expensive book to date, it will be entering its fifth printing before the summer National Needlework Trade Show in June of this year. To put this into perspective, many of my other books took two years to reach this benchmark.
“Life is good at the beach” is a small sign in my guest bedroom. And now I can say the same applies to me. Although I have trouble applying the word “retirement” to my life, I am savoring delicious moments of ease. I cannot tell you how wonderful it is to enjoy a second cup of warm coffee in the morning while reading another chapter of the novel stored on my Kindle.
What do I want to be when I grow up? I have finally come to terms with the fact that this question no longer applies to me. I just want to laugh and enjoy these moments of freedom from responsibilities. Could you hand me my atomizer of Joy Juice?
Fondly,
