I\u2019m unemployed and I don\u2019t have any office to go to every morning. I used to have a different place and different faces as part of my day. Not anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have to create a space of my own, separate from my home. The usual thing to do is to go to a coffee shop with my laptop, buy a coffee and a sweet and settle in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I tried that, even going to a coffee shop a bit off my usual path. But after the second time I signed the check I started thinking: did it really have to cost money to leave my house?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The small town is so peaceful and pastoral. I walk my neighborhood every day. After all my travels this summer I\u2019m seeing possibilities in the public spaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It could feel too pastoral, like there is so much nothing going on I might lay flat and join in the nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And as soon as that thought appears, I think about the stuff that has happened in my life while I have been in this town. I am not great at doing nothing. RIGHT NOW it is peaceful, but I remember so many things that happened in this place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It reminds me of those small incredibly peaceful villages in the countryside, typically England but it could be anywhere, which somehow provide the resident detective with regularly occurring murders to solve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Murder, she wrote<\/a>. And my favorite, Masterpiece mysteries<\/a> from the BBC. For many years those were my favorite to watch as I fell asleep. Britain doesn\u2019t have gunshots (as much) so it is peaceful to watch well-spoken people walk about finding clues and solving things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am giving it a try. I have a metal coffee cup with a lid. True, no one is here to refill it for me. But with my notebook, laptop and pen at a table by the park, there is some life in my morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Squirrels are chasing each other up the tree. One has a fat acorn in its mouth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two men are separately walking tiny dogs across the basketball court<\/p>\n\n\n\n A group of gray-haired women in knit leggings and athletic shoes are intent on getting the dance moves synchronized, as a graybeard runs the camera and sound system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And a toddler give me side eye before she runs giggling to her person\u2014Mama? Big sister?\u2014by the playground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like ripples on a water\u2019s surface, disturbances stay small in the larger context. I enjoy the bustle but it leaves me space to find my own drama. The clues can be seen to solves the mysteries of my life. I have my own personal murder village if I choose to look around. What excitement would I wish to experience. That\u2019s what the pen and notebook are for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019m unemployed and I don\u2019t have any office to go to every morning. I used to have a different place and different faces as part of my day. Not anymore. I have to create a space of my own, separate … Continue reading