“It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves.” Henry David Thoreau, Walden
What is August if not a season of renewal? In some ways, it is more a new beginning than spring, not for the earth but, for society. From our youth, the school cycle carves into us a yearning to turn over our leaves and shed old things. Our new year is the school year.
You can be anyone in a new school year, returning from summer with new shoes, a new backpack, and a new outlook on life. Tryouts begin, clubs restart, and friend groups shift. It’s a new chance to learn, to compete, and to carve yourself into a fresh shape.
Even as an adult, those first chill mornings of early September call with a promise of renewal. Not a rebirth exactly. Fall is an edit.
About August
I’ve always wanted to create a life from which I didn’t need a vacation. I don’t know how to describe it better. I didn’t want to dread Mondays. I didn’t want to spend most of the year dreaming of an extravagant cruise where I could escape a life I abhor for two weeks. They say, “Work hard. Play hard.” I work hard but, it feels like play when I do it well.
Which is why I wasn’t upset when we didn’t take a summer vacation at the beginning of summer. It didn’t make sense for our family’s calendar. So, we booked it for the gap week between the end of my son’s summer care program and his return to school. This gave me ample time to think about what I wanted to get out of my week away from my life.
I realized, I just wanted some rest and a moment to dream. I see this vacation as a chance to edit much in the style of a school-age summer break. What can I be when I come back?
The Beaten Track
I once saw a review of Walden that called it “… the best-documented vacation.” Thoreau’s escape from the world had several purposes for him, civil disobedience, simplicity, spiritual awakening, moral reckoning, and self-reliance. Yet, the first time I read it, I was left with an impression of renewal.
Why? It is interesting to imagine going into the woods for two years to live off the land and escape society. It is more interesting to consider what brought Thoreau back from his hut in the country.
“I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live, and could not spare any more time for that one. It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves. I had not lived there a week before my feet wore a path from my door to the pond-side; and though it is five or six years since I trod it, it is still quite distinct. It is true, I fear that others may have fallen into it, and so helped to keep it open. The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity! I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains. I do not wish to go below now.” Henry David Thoreau, Walden
That is all I want from a vacation — to break away from my beaten track and walk somewhere new. It may be only a few feet to the left or right from where I usually trod. But, the freshness of that wandering walk is the first step to creative energy.
A Fall Edit
I am writing this as I leave for the woods and lake — to stay in a cabin with running water and electricity (the most primitive accommodations that my husband will consider a vacation). In anticipation, I have pulled together a pile of books, packed many post-it notes, and checked to make sure my pens won’t run dry.
I know that on Friday when I get back, I’ll be switching over my space at Ashwood Manor Designs to make room for new card designs. I’ve started a new close-to-my-heart collection that I hope to expand in the coming weeks.
I’m also carving out some time in my fall work schedule to continue growing The Shop Shop. Right now, that means cutting away things that we’re doing as much as adding to it. What’s the best use of our time? Who are the best clients for us? And what services do the most for our clients?
These questions, and more specific ones, are lighting up my brain. I want to answer them alone.
That aloneness is essential for my creative process and my planning. It’s in the quiet I will find the answers and return to walk beside my beaten track.
