Naming this new blog site took me on a journey that ended with a big smile.
I considered calling it “Our Land of After.”
We all live in the Land of After. We live this day after retirement, job changes, graduation, births, deaths, even a good or bad night sleep. Yet, the thing is, while my land and your land may overlap, each is delightfully unique.
I considered calling this blog site “The Curious Land of After.”
Certainly my Land of After has been a curious and sometimes challenging place for me. Sometimes the landscape has been wildly unexpected. Yet, “The Curious Land of After” seemed rather like a place I visited or happened upon.
Friends have described to me their personal Land of After. I wish I could paint each one into a world-circling mural. How colorful and fascinating that mural would be! Yet, the title “Colorful Land of After” didn’t capture my friends’ underlying courage and determination, or their moments of sorrow.
A few folks in the midst of hard times have told me of the darkness of their current Land of After, but a blog site titled “The Crappy Land of After” sounded too bleak.
My son Ryan gets credit for inspiring the title I finally chose. We were walking in my garden, this delightfully chaotic tangle of plants that had grown out of tragedy.
“I feel so grateful,” I told Ryan. “Six months ago when the landslide took out my front yard and almost my house I never expected to be walking in this garden. I am so lucky I had the time and resources and the health to haul in truck loads of boulders and top soil and learn all about native plants. Not bad for a 65-year-old broad, eh?”
“Mom,” Ryan said “It is not luck or chance. You made choices your whole life that led you here today.”
He talked about my work and going to college, keeping active and facing challenges in the past.
“Your choices created this, mom.”
I could only smile. Well, to be honest, there were a few tears in my smiling eyes.
I had created my Land of After.
We all do.
And so the title of this blog site was born. It is a title that fits this blog perfectly.
I so look forward to sharing with you the stories, ideas and artwork from our collective Lands of After. As always we will be teaching each other as we create the inevitable next after and next after.
Follow on
Share with
