grateful saturday: really

When I moved to Ithaca, I left my job. I had some strange, feminist feelings--like feminist guilt. I tried to wrap my head around why, considering we decided on the move together, I felt guilty or, somehow, like a small woman walking behind a man. Sure, Jesse had the job and I was losing my own job, my own income, and whatever odd "prestige" comes with teaching college, but we were moving towards my family, towards my home and the East Coast...a lot of it was my decision.

I still feel strange--small still--about it all.

I quit my job, a job I did love in an industry I'm worried and stressed about. For awhile, I've been assisting at a bakery in Ithaca. It's been rewarding to see home skills in a faster paced, higher volume setting. It's been amazing to see self taught ideas in practice. It's also been really difficult: a recipe doesn't work the same in higher volume and there's a lot that a home cook has to learn by trial and error. Oh, and let me tell you that four in the morning is a time I rarely want to see as often as I've seen it since doing bakery delivery.

From the bakery, I learned to value home skills and the idea of being self taught. It's given me a lot of confidence though it pushes into those stranger feelings about womanhood and what it means, in our culture, to be a woman.

Now I'm starting an even new chapter: I'm going to be working for a spa in town. While my job description and title are still being worked out, I'm grateful to report that I'll be giving myself time to pursue another self taught interest in inner and outer beauty / holistic health. I start at Rasa Spa on Monday, being trained for a full two weeks to better understand the wellness benefits of bodywork, energy work, aromatherapy, and other rejuvenation treatments.

A total spin in career, but a path that I've been interested in and that I've wondered how to pursue in a more realistic sense. Sure, I've made a lip balm here or there, given myself a hair steam even, but I've only recently started to understand the necessity to attend to circulation, relaxation, and my body as a part of my whole person. I'm really grateful.

I'm also grateful for this arrangement of rocks, wood, dried flowers, and a (I think) rusted hose handle I found in the garden. All of these items were sitting in the house, waiting to be arranged into something lovely for the back hallway. Spring cleaning is off to a good start this weekend.

Beeswax (from Ithaca Farmer's Market) and Mineral Oil (from Wegmans) were warmed up, stirred together, and made into a lovely wood polish. 

Here it is all finished. I love how easy this was to make and it smells like honey, makes the wood look wonderful. I know I'm supposed to wipe it off the wood for a really effective polish, but the glow of leaving it on the wood for a couple days and letting it just naturally fade it way more appealing. I'm grateful for how easy it is to attend to and care for objects, to make them last longer. I see, all the time, how much better the house feel when items are cared for and enabled to age.

Since Jesse's away this weekend--competing in Houston at the USBCBC, I've been reading about coffee flavors and doodling coffee sketches. I think I'll add some color to this black and white and take a better picture. Since the Kenya just came in to the shop, I've been excited about apricot flavors and citrus! My tongue must be getting ready for summer.