Sarah B. McCann

I think I write every year about how much I like Autumn. Here is this year's post in honor of my favorite season and time of year. I am on a train to New York City, all the trees are yellow orange, except the ones that are red and we just passed by an impressive sculpture of a man on a horse with wings and flags. The air is crisp, the sky is beautiful whether perfectly blue or low and grey. Today it has been both.

It is a time of year for new beginnings, for transformations. A time to plan, reconsider goals, look at where one has been, is presently and where one is headed. It is also always the busiest time of year for me and this year has been no different. We just completed two of the biggest events of the year at Baltimore Clayworks where I work and will continue to be busy with exciting programs and events until the end of the year. Another project I was a part of is coming to a close as a new one starts to require more time. And yet for some reason there is still time to reflect and evaluate or rather I am making sure I make the the time.

Maybe it is the coming holidays that make me consider what is important in my life. Memories of childhood, of growing up, of a time when one feels everything at the core of one's being. I saw LUV at the Creative Alliance Thursday night and I think that seeing this film only added to my already thoughtful frame of mind. There will be another post about the movie, it was excellent, if you have the chance to see it you should, but what I want to focus on now is the fact that it was told from the perspective of an 11 year old boy and expressed and reminded the viewer that children feel everything. As one watched the world through this boy's eyes, one felt with a deepness that it is not always possible to maintain in a world that moves much faster than feelings.

It is this time of the year that I remember how to feel and remember that emotions are necessary to living fully, but that one of life's greatest accomplishments is also to be able to detach from one's emotions and act with purpose and tact. It is this time of year when I am renewed, even in the midst of chaos, connected to myself and seeing clearly again how I got from there to here and able to chart a course to get from here to a newly defined there.

Just another time to plot points in life. The trees losing their leaves a reminder of natural cycles we cannot control. A reminder to take the time needed, to find balance, to breathe. A chance to remember what one wants and what one needs.