Snow in Canada. Insight on Mars.

On the day that we have landed InSight on Mars, it feels more than appropriate to recognize that often the most difficult steps are the first ones, even or perhaps especially when we've traveled a similar path before. There are always new obstacles, new challenges, and ever more opportunities for discovery.

So it feels in my heart, tucked away as I am in Vermont's November chill. I've done this Sabbatical thing before. I've faced deep personal challenges and yet...each experience is different. Each requires an acknowledgment of where I've come, what I've learned, who I have loved, what I have gained, and what and who I have lost.

Life travels on...with or without our nod to it.

I grab hold of my roots, the resilience of as my mother shared with me, "a long line of strong women" to slowly climb up and out and into...what? The unknown.

Tonight I cracked through....paintings swirling in my heart: a love of family, the discovery of peace in Quebec's snowy fog, the joy of Champlain's mist and deep blue waves,

And gratitude to family and friends who hold me up.

And that is where my Art starts, the wavering steps of my heart...

TBC.