Butterflies and Other Things in a Grateful Heart

This past week in Rochester has gone very quickly—astonishingly so! A week I guess is shorter still when you add in a holiday.

What gave in my planning was time to paint. I had it all lined up in my mind. Imagery solid, supplies all ready to go. However there was the matter of a feast and family and then presentations and interruptions from work. Still I played and thought and imagined what I will create next—visualizing and problem-solving in my mind.

That is one misnomer about the word Sabbatical. Many think it means vacation but instead it really means concentrating on important work that one was unable to concentrate on before. This week it included on the "official" side of the fence:

• the upcoming NEASC panel (my intro presentation is now on SlideShare!),
• this week's brainstorming at the Emergent Media Center on creating a "Makers' space",
• a PACE board call—an IEEE Computer Society endeavor to collaborate across communities to share efforts with the aims of advocating for young people to enter computer careers.

Family was more poignant and far more lovely. I spent a full Thanksgiving with many of my siblings and their wonderful children, a visual feast of a day at the Albright Knox Museum in Buffalo (an artist's must see) and viewing the wondrously magical Hugo with Jim, a marvelous two days with my daughter Tegan, to include a girls' half day with her and my niece Margo, and precious time with my parents battling resources for long-term care and simply enjoying just being.

But in the realm of play, perhaps what linked my work and my life was a few days with my brother Dave, his wife Patti and their lovely flutterbies! They returned me to my youth and through them I once again was a child of exploration and creativity. Together we flew between time and space.

For all of this I am deeply grateful.