Saturday, May 21, 2011

Days One and Two In Provincetown

I am sitting here on a no longer tomato red couch with summer essentials in front of me: this laptop, my camera, a set of water colors and a set of acrylic tubes, two sizes of blank papers and postcards, my beloved iphone, a copy of The Time Traveler's Wife, a book called Reading Like a Writer: A Guide For People Who Love Books and For Those Who Want To Write Them, four thin classy white candles, a small package of paper clay, and an estimated 100 pages of a manuscript that has to find its focus and purpose.


I can't believe I'm here. I can't believe the weather is a perfect sunny mid sixties and I can't believe I feel so much at home. The creative urge is hopping. It has been six years since JB and I had this little sanctuary of a place to ourselves and there are chores to tackle: repainting the hall and back room, unpacking linens and towels, hanging paintings and pictures, replacing the screen door...s-e-t-t-l-i-n-g--in.


But these are not the same 'chores' I left at home. These are perfect chores.


We won't be here all summer (work!) but at least some of the time I can come and go. I can say I live here part-time if I want to. I can reconnect with friends here AND I can hole myself up to write. I finished The Light Stays On here, on this red couch. I also felt the full impact of a heart smashed in pieces here, and I know that this is a place that heals me. Sometimes I sound so dramatic when I talk about my broken heart or my human struggles, and sometimes I think I should explain that I have a good life, that I believe I am a lucky person, that I am grateful for abundance in love and friendship and material comfort and in certain kinds of wisdom and whimsy.
This is a picture of the bay one block down the street. It will not be unusual for me to walk to it most mornings I am here, whatever the season. When Mr. Ryand and Drew are here, we will take them to the bay at around 7 or 8 am, roll up our pants and take off our shoes and walk into low tide, stepping around the slimy seaweed, looking for baby crabs and finding schools of tiny fish in the salt water ripples.

On this bay, for years, with JB, with my dog Rosie, alone, I have walked and strolled and dipped and paddled and dreamed and imagined and envisioned and most of all let myself fall into the time and rhythm of the tides.

Here I am again. JB and I did little this morning, went to the town wide yard sales this afternoon, to the hardware store, to the kitchen shop. Now we are back for a short while before we walk to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants (Front Street). And tomorrow I will write. I may paint a wall or two too.

It's all fine.

I wish you the same, in whatever way.

Happy weekend,
love kj

22 comments:

  1. it does look lovely and I will visit you this summer. yes i will.

    I can tell you what to do with the paperclay...but not with the writing - just do it I guess - you're good at it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love reading you. Your summer essentials are just perfect, and wow, look where you are...more perfection!
    Enjoy these days, as I know you will.

    ~Barb xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  3. What beautiful scenes between the words. Idealic it seems. Do enjoy.
    Don't work too hard; do party and play; enjoy that beautiful beach.
    Oh oh oh...I wish.

    ReplyDelete
  4. suki, it is....

    mim, i know, i know, i'm glad! please tell me what to do wit paperclay. tell me and i will open the package!!!

    barbara, what a sweet kind thing to say. thank you.

    lynn, i will remember your advice, lynn. you're so right! xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  5. What does a human being need more than a lovely house, beach and sea in the neighborhood and good company and a few nice chores to do? OT: I have sent you a translation by e-mail and I forgot to ask how dear Stella is.
    How is dear Stella?
    :-)))

    ReplyDelete
  6. Waaaaaaaaay better than my week I can assure you. Have a wonderful relax.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I am happy you have the place back t yourself:)
    I can picture you on that red couch with all those creative tools in front of you.......
    Wow I bet only looking at that will make you happy!!!!!!
    Loved to see that view on the end of the street.......memories......
    Enjoy all your days there and let all that creativity flow. Can't wait ot see and read what you will create:)

    have a wonderful Sunday!!!!
    ♥♥♥
    >M<

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love the thought of doing something like this. Walking to the water, walking to a restaurant, fussing over a lovely beach house. It's good to slow life down, to rest, to fiddle with paper clay and words. Fill up that creative bucket with shells and ideas. :)) I'm thinking of you this morning and feeling equally blessed: a house full of kids (for the moment!), deer at the salt lick, and a cup of tea in hand. Life, she is good! xoxoxox Pam

    ReplyDelete
  9. wieneke, you are so right. i am going to quote you to my jumpy mind when it starts wandering! (which it will, and i will need to pull it back to calm waters) xoxo

    hells, question of the day: will the couch still be red when you sit on it? (the sun fades it, and it is well over 15 years old already. i hope something interesting falls in front of you this week, honeyhells. ♥

    marianne, true!: just looking at my 'tools' on the coffee table makes me smile. i wonder what i will create too. this manuscript is due to my writing group by the end of june and i could end up revising most of it, so who knows?! (are you feeling better? i hope hope so) ♥

    pam, these interlude moments are to be jumped into and held on to, eh? i love your bucket of shells and ideas. what a terrific image. i'm glad you are at a place of awe and appreciation too. until another time, begone chores, not now! xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  10. mmmmm...the whole thing...the walks, the talks, the dinners and lunches, visitors coming by, more walks, seafood and sand castles...it all sounds completely divine. I wish I didn't live on the opposite coast, else I would be sitting on that faded red couch with you!

    Have a wonderful summer, kj, you so deserve it!

    ReplyDelete
  11. These wonderful photos remind me of WHY P-town is so special to you ..... it is a "Battery-Charging" place - to be sure. After your long, cold Winter...and the health issues with your Mum and Stella....your "Battery" is drained.. staying here will be just what you, JB and Stella need!

    Take it easy...walk those shores...feel the sand between your toes... eat out...go slowly at first...let your body and mind unwind... the writing will come on it's own....

    Sending all three love,

    ♥ Robin ♥

    ReplyDelete
  12. marion, yes, dammit, you live far!! but you know the feeling as i do of 'flow' and we can share that together! ♥

    robin, i don't think my battery is drained! maybe it's loving the time for electrical jolts and the quiet revving, but i not resting as much as i'm percolating. i can't wait tot write, to test my knee with long(er) walks, to let the galleries pull me in, to eat, to eat, to eat! thanks alwsys for the well wishes and encouragement! ♥

    ReplyDelete
  13. robin, look at all those typing errors! i must be in a different zone!!!!

    angela, ah a hundred ♥'s to you. are you painting today?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Wish I were there, lucky duck.
    Let the book come, free and easy, it will come.
    As for the broken heart, I am still mending mine after 3 years and likely will forever, but it is all part of life and even though it sometimes does not feel like it, it too is good, heartbreak is good, it opens us up to even more love if we let it. xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  15. sounds like absolute bliss...b

    ReplyDelete
  16. aggg, my new computer put that b there...

    ReplyDelete
  17. I miss having a beach down the street, one I can walk to. The one we have here seems like a little puddle compared to what I had, but still...I have one.

    Oh the magic of the Cape! I'm happy you're happy ;)

    You never responded to Weineke regarding Stella. Did she make the trip okay? I know she finds healing in the salt air too.

    How did you end up with sunshine? Still not a ray of it here, drizzling as I type this.

    I still have to check my schedule so I can have a ptown weekend :)

    Enjoy this blissful time.

    xo
    Lo♥

    ReplyDelete
  18. Glad you are there and enjoying perfect beach weather.

    ReplyDelete
  19. The last was both a perfect example and what I imagine to be the truth of the process for you.

    ReplyDelete