My first non-school summer is drawing to a close. Oddly enough, it has been a good summer and the off and on panic of my first August sans classes is not as prevalent as I thought it might be. Work continues (at work we are driven by the academic year; perhaps this connection helps my own loss of classes?). Post-work work also continues: the arts collaboration New City Arts Initiative is finally rolling off of its own inertia (we’ve received non-profit status, are working on a new website and communications system, and have plans for several cool projects), Lychgate Productions is requiring more and more energy, and my housing search warranted a full time salary for about a week. Fortunately, all of these seem to survive even if I can’t give 110% to each of them at every moment. Even so…

Not many weeks go by that I don’t question what I am doing in Charlottesville… what I am doing with my life, when my sparse collection of hopes and dreams seem to vanish like the morning fog… or even more often, when the fog of exhaustion and work seems so thick that not even the fiercest beam of hope could pierce through. I am amazed that at these times, the thing that relieves the confusion and discouragement in as simple as a different kind of work.

I’m undergoing an effort to refinish a set of (probably) homemade bookshelves. When acquired, they were dark with age, yellowed and scratched beyond recognition. Amazing what a little time, love and sweat can do.

I am not always so adrift with gloom. Though the fog is thick, light does shine through. It can be as simple as a run or the thought that I am actually working on a fun and meaningful project (yes, the shelves, but also with Lychgate). A friend and photographer took pictures of Wade and I for use on our website, and we are moving closer to finding a cinematographer for our intro clip.