Autumn – Season of New Beginnings

            “Uhh… Gary?”  I can hear you saying.  “Don’t you mean spring?  Isn’t fall when everything dies or goes to sleep?  As in the season of endings?”

            “Pshaw!”  I say to you.  “Don’t pester me with your pedantic prattle!  I’m the blogger, and I declare that autumn reigns supreme as the season of new beginnings!”

Autumn and Writing

            So, I love autumn.  Always have.  There’s a je-ne-sais-quoi to the air during the months of September and October (sorry, November – by the time you’re in full swing, we’re pretty much just waiting for winter), that energizes me.

            I find myself reaching for my Aran sweater, lured outside by the siren call of the nippy air, cloudy skies, and forests of orange, yellow and red.  My mouth waters for hearty soups.  I binge on scary movies…

            …and this particular autumn, I get to call myself a full-time writer!!

            Yep.  I’ve taken a leave of my senses absence from teaching this fall to dedicate myself 100% to writing.

He’s a Full-time Writer?

            Now, immediately upon reading this, you’ve probably fallen into one of three categories:

1.         You go, girl!  Follow your dreams!

2.         You quit your day job?!  What about the kids?!

3.         Silence.

            To those of you in the first category – dankeschön.  Your support and confidence are noted.

            To those of you in the second category – yeah, I get you.  I thought for a long time that I could do both – keep the security of a steady pay cheque, but still squeeze-in a side-gig doing what I most wanted to do.  It was the smart thing to do.  But it got me nowhere.  (other than increasingly frustrated and bitter.)

(without getting into details here, hubby and I mitigated the financial risks of this by planning ahead.  Because, yes, it would have been monumentally stupid to jump in without some sort of security net… but I’ll leave this for another post).

The ‘Right Time’ to Follow a Dream

            And to those of you in the third category… I know what you’re thinking.  Because I was you.

            You’ve got what I have.  You know, that ‘other thing’ you’d rather be doing.  The one that only gets talked of after the second bottle of red wine is open, when the kids are in bed, over that long weekend while at the cottage, sitting by the fire or out by the water…

            You’ve been there too.

            But the next morning, you pop an acetaminophen, tidy up, pack, throw the kids in the car, and head home.  Cuz there’s work tomorrow, and stuff needs doing.  And there’ll be time for your dreams… later?

            later.

            When does ‘later’ become ‘too late’?  I didn’t want to find out.  So I held my breath and took a leap.

            Where did I land?

            I guess we’ll all find out in a future post.

            In the interim – get out there and let autumn inspire you!