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HILLS AND VALLEYS
…  surprise in search of ourselves
Friday June 27, 2014
 
 
What’s next?
 
I’ve been thinking – time off, some golf, a trip.
 
Time, soon, for that. 
 
Financial changes of late lifting, long-standing burdens reduced. 
 
I like that.  
 
Quiet times, beach walking times, simmering summer times – have been missed.
 
Easy (everyone’s wish), never happens. 
 
Can’t imagine simple-life, troubles-free life.
 
Surmountable challenges. 
 
Ugly twists, just memories, when we smile satisfaction at chapter’s end.
 
Lasts a few minutes. 
 
A few hours.
 
Then, “what’s next” overtakes …
 
My 15 year chapter closes – spring un-easy (deaths, moves, work). Fifteen years ago I married, 2nd time, moved back to Calgary. My dad followed a year later. A year later that marriage crumbled. Closed that door the following year. Business, financial and emotional hills and valleys followed. Watched up-close, my dad’s health declined, distance-witnessed my daughters goings-on. Known women – glorious hills, drought-valleys, nothing stuck. Kindness of friends and strangers alike, supportive clients – sustained me. My children finding their own way, two grandchildren – awesome joy. Holiday trips – Hawaii fun, golf, cooking and plenty of adventures. And finding my voice – on the page, on the stage. Fifteen years with some easy pieces – but mostly, jig-saw puzzle-like. That chapter, on the shelf now.
 
Taking anything easy has  been so very far removed from consciousness for so long.
 
I’m not planning sabbatical. No long trips to wander far-away deserts. I’m thinking about this refreshing time for being open-to-anything that now becomes possible, open to anyone who happens along – always that way, but easier to see when heavy fog clears.
 
Time for new.
 
Projects itching at the gate.  
 
Client’s dream, my challenges – far from done, stewing on my front burner.
 
What’s next?
 
Don’t expect easy.  
 
 
 
Mark Kolke
196,880
column written/ published from Calgary
 
morning walk: 10C/50F, clear, negligible breeze, heat ahead this afternoon with resulting predictions of thunderstorm risk; Gusta strolled and my mind wandered – a bizarre set of feelings about recent days causing me to be completely distracted
 
Reader feedback / comments always welcome:
 
WE DO WHAT WE DO
Love it, glad I read it and I think what you said could be summed in 40 seconds as a very brief outline …. How did the luncheon go?  I am going to see if I can sum up my life and experience in 40 seconds … and like you, I have been and seen and done it all too, B, Keremeos, BC
 
JUST PEACHY
Re: morning walk:  Has Gusta ever caught a squirrel?  Every dog should have their day and hers began 'peachily' simply from a sniff of a hope.  GW, Bon Wier, Tx.

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