Hello All and Happy 2011!  

You knew I couldn't keep quiet all winter long, didn't you?   So here's the deal.    I'm embarking on an adventure for 2011 and I needed a couple of months to think it through, convince myself that I was brave enough to do it, and set the wheels in motion.   

This is Life and Work by Design in 3-D!  

I'm sure some of you (or some of your children) have "taken a year off to find myself."  I think most of us have wished we could hit the road and keep on going at various times in our lives.  

I didn't do that back in the late 60's when I could have.  The expectations in my family were very traditional - go to college for a teaching degree, meet a man, graduate, get married and become my mother. 

No questions asked; no deviations from the norm allowed.   

And I followed that path for the first 10 years.  Oh, in the 70's I returned to school for a Master's so I could "be my own person" and even though I didn't have to work for income, I did to some extent.  

Then came the death of my Mother followed immediately by a sudden divorce and my life changed overnight.   I was single with two children and had to figure out a new direction.   

In the fog of the next 20 years, I lost sight of ME.  For the last five years I've earned income in a variety of ways while struggling to find myself and identify my personal mission.  In reviewing saved journals (some 30 years old!) I kept reading the same list of goals that haven't changed one iota.

(1.) I want to live at the shore;

(2.) I want to be a writer;

(3) I want to live in France for at least 3 months.  

At sixty-three years old, I am feeling the pressure of time passing much more quickly.  How did that happen??  I still think I'm 40 but the reality of subtracting my age from my life expectancy is a chilling exercise.   

My daughter, who was wise enough to delay settling down until she had accomplished her dream of traveling and living in NYC, is unrelenting in her prodding to "do what it is you want to do NOW." 

So that's what I'm going to do.  I've given my landlord 60 days notice, I'll pack everything up to put in storage and inhabit a sublet at the shore for the rest of the spring.   While I am there I will work on a book that I've outlined in the last couple of months about ...well, more about that later.  I'll spend the summer with Dad as usual and begin to plan a trip to Europe in the fall. 

And you can come along with me!

I promise to share the good and not so good of all of it.  You can all experience it vicariously.  But I hope I might also inspire some of you to name and plan your own adventure.   It doesn't have to be as drastic as mine!  

I'll be posting on the blog a couple of times a week and then sending out this newsletter once a month that will include all the updates and some snippets from the material for the book.  I encourage you to comment or email me all you want. 

And to the few folks who have been privy to this plan and have supported me enthusiastically, thank you!  Sometimes we need permission to be brave... or just plain nuts!!

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I've omitted the book review and inspiration sections in the interest of getting this out the first week of the month.  If you have suggestions or requests for revised format next month, let me know.