Sign of the Times

I love signs. Signage, signposts, signals. Give me a sign and I'm happy. Sometimes confused, but happy. 

I stumbled across this one as I was walking to my friend Jill's house for dinner. I am fortunate that many of my friends are fabulous cooks. Dinner cooked by Jill Margo, similar to dining at my friend Ayelet Tsabari's house, is how I imagine Nirvana. Bliss, this union of marvellous meals + superb company = free from desire to be elsewhere. 

I dream of being a Goddess of All Things Culinary, but am a bit of a Kitchen-phobe. Ah, The Places Your Psyche Will Go. (Little known fact is that the original, unedited title of the Dr. Seuss classic was The Places You'll Go, The Baggage You'll Carry .) I came across this sign at dusk. My mouth was watering, my mind was wandering—in other words, my usual state of being—I looked up and thought, "I did? Prove it." 

Here's what happened: I got a sign, in the form of a forwarded email from the eloquent Fiona Tinwei Lam, about a call for submissions from Mother Tongue Publishing. I contacted Mona Fertig, she expressed an interest, I sent off my short fiction and then I had a contract to sign. A change of pace! Montage through days and weeks of rewriting and editing, working with notes based on Mona's generous feedback, Ayelet's brilliant insights, and on target comments from the talented Terri Favro. I also had helpful input from Fiona-the-fabulous and Betsy Warland, (the marvellous). Fiona, Ayelet, and my TWS mentor, Wayde Compton (the wonderful) agreed to read and endorse (blurb!) the work. This November, A Recipe for Disaster & Other Unlikely Tales of Love, will be released!
      
All this activity is requiring some adjustments, and that in turn made me think of this photo again. As Heraclitus put it, nothing endures but change.