life is funny in its rhythms. almost exactly ten years since i left a full time job in visual at macy's, i find myself once again back in a part-time freelance position traveling around northern california trimming christmas trees.
for a long time i didn't even want to set foot in a department store, i was so burnt out on retail and the preparations that lead up to and after the christmas holiday. in many ways it stole some of my joy from the season as i would come home and look at the traditional installments of decorating and gift buying as one more obligation related to my day job.
and now here in october, a month before most folk want to even think about seeing christmas trees, i am once again perpetuating the early push. and yet as i walk through the different stores, many i haven't been inside in years, there is a familiarity here. i can recall the day to day rhythms of a life i used to live so many years ago. there is a quietness in the morning hours i miss, when the store has not yet opened and only a portion of the lights are on. like working on a stage preparing the sets each morning before the doors to the theater open and the crowd shuffles in. taking time to consider projects, and then executing them with a variety of materials and a set number of constraints.
the people too, who i shared conversations with while rolling my cart out on to the floor and stopping to catch up for a minute. the camaraderie of other creative people of diverse background all with their own unique creativity and personal projects. i miss the solitude of the shop as my own work studio and meditation cell. and yes, i have to admit i have missed some of the sense that i was connected to a larger world of the now and the new.
so, even though the work is a little difficult sometimes, i'm hoping i can enjoy it now, in the moment, and reconnect a little with another layer from my past.
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