So, I noticed something today. It may require some back story.

I’m retiring at the end of the year. A scant two months ago, a flash of insight slipped into my brain. “It’s time,” my visiting insight said, without so much as a hello. “It’s the right time to pull the trigger.”

Now, that visit arrived about three years after my original retirement alarm clock went off. It again triggered a little shiver of fear. Consequently, it took another two months to get comfortable notifying those who must be notified and commissioning the felling of the tree that would be destroyed to accommodate the heavy paperwork process of transitioning out. As luck would have it, the Era of COVID just happened to actually save the tree, given the need for all electronic documents.

It will be another four months before I officially cut loose the tendrils that tie me to what I’ve called work for about 24 years.

That’s all back story.

Today I sat at my work computer considering the day’s tasks and was struck by a visceral (and visual) experience: it was as though I was looking through wispy fog, or maybe through a clear pane of water glass. It was startling and immediate, and I couldn’t shake the soft-focus sense of distance that emerged.

If you’re a stained glass fan, you’ll understand. Water glass is a translucent glass with the texture of water, used in stained glass projects. As you look through, there’s a fluid sense of movement. However, it skews whatever lies on the other side into new, somewhat indecipherable (but always fascinating) forms.

It’s quite transformational, and it’s caused me no end of curious reflection all day, simmering like a stew in my subconscious.

I get it. Or at least I think so. Creative rumination often takes its own route to become clear; with water glass in the mix, it may signal a wild ride to a destination not yet fully envisioned. But for today, it’s enough to understand that I’m experiencing a pulling away – a visible, palpable thing – that’s bringing a sense of less interest in what’s been my focus for so long. The fascinating forms and images that are becoming apparent (sans full clarity, mind you) are all the more intriguing. 

I figure it’s not a coincidence that last evening marked the first session of four-month journey with a group of wildly creative people to explore the path toward becoming Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaches … not to mention a path toward whatever awaits each one of us.

With a journey like that … with people like that … toward a destination like that? Cast off the bowlines! I’m under way.