The Big Decision

Sometimes, one has to make BIG decisions that include leaving what we love and know and hold dear to our hearts.....and that is what I have been doing: making BIG decisions.  It is time to get back out in the world and teach, and as I have been applying for art positions, and flying around visiting private schools, I have had to think about what I value, and what will balance the grieving I feel about leaving my home, my kids, and my grandson.  At the end of 14 months of interviewing, I have chosen a position at the Orme School of Arizona in Mayer.  I will be the Department Chair of Fine Arts, and teach painting, drawing, ceramics, and a foundations course.  Chelsea, Jack, Willow, and I drove there last Monday and visited the school, and explored the great mesa, and I, of course, had to pick up any meaningful mementos.  It seems that the ravens were molting, so there were large, black feathers all over the ground.  When I first interviewed at the school, I read a brochure that stated, "Riding across this range in late spring, you may come across yellow-green flowers blooming on a low-lying vine from which seed pods will grow.  Later, as these tough pods dry out, they curl and split open. The pointed ends from sharp claws hook onto the animals that move through the range and the mature seeds are thus shaken out and scattered abroad.............[this] unique plant is indigenous to this area........and these devil's claws seem an appropriate symbol of the Orme School Fine Arts Festival."

As I was walking Willow, I finally found one of these devil's claws, so of course, had to add it to my collection of nature's treasures.  Perhaps finding it finalized my decision, or maybe I had just made the decision, and then I found one.  Or....maybe, it found me.  What this devil's claw doesn't know, however, is that it may be here in Southern California now, but it will be returning home again soon.

The land is beautiful, and the climate is fine.  It will be the next leg of my journey.  I am excited, overwhelmed, and grateful.  Being able to take my animals with me was a priority, and all three of them are accepted and have a home in this awesome environment.  Pepito will continue to chase coyotes until he's too old (or until he's eaten), Tillie has a new ranch, and Willow will have hundreds of acres on which to run and jump.  Willow pouted all the way home when we left on Wednesday.  Is it almost time to change the title of my blog from "From the foothills" to "From the mesa?"