jalléCafe

The view from my still unconnected desk

After sleeping so well and deeply this weekend that I recovered my voice and banished the sniffle, technology nearly proved my undoing today.

The Handsome Electrician - who came to my office because we STILL have not installed my Internet as a result of not being able to find the wall DSL connection - told me there was "bad news." Somehow this building which was built before the invention of the telegraph does not have a telephone line running from the basement to my fourth floor studio. "How is this possible?" we all scratched our heads in wonder in our various dialects.

The long cable has been ordered for Thursday installation (said Handsome Electrician after discussion with Friendly Real Estate Agent).

I was definitely ready for a Prosecco, but instead returned a sample chair to a large store and raced home to connect my computer with the outside world.

Tonight's menu: pasta, broccoli and a reminder that one year from now there's some chance this will be a distant memory.  New day tomorrow!

PS, I'm also still using my window ledge as a Coke refridgerator while a kitchen designer I met this morning takes a couple of weeks to propose a plan.  Maybe later I'll look back and think these were the "glory days..."

Things I may never learn

To the "things I will never do" folder in my Email files, I'm going to add "Things I may never learn."

Like right now, I'm in the middle of moving and setting-up my new studio. PLUS I'm giving a 4th Anniversary party for my business with more than 40 people tonight.  Not in the studio for sure because there's no place to sit and piles of junk everywhere. Well, part of it's getting better thanks to a desk table generously installed from a friend.  But I still have to connect to the Internet from home through today.

Yesterday, I woke with a stuffy nose and sneezes.  No sore throat. No aches or fever.  Just my body saying, "Jill, I'm giving you fair warning!"  I know that if I just sleep a good, relaxed night, it will go away.

And if I don't do that, well I had my chance ...

The original story

I recently updated the "About Me" page on this blog to reflect how it has evolved in three years.  Yet I want to always remember the original metaphor I wrote for it in 2006.  It proved to be an important starting point.  More influential than I could have imagined.

My story.

When I find an appealing little café along a street, I always want to spend more time inside it than I can in real life.

I dream that these warm, buzzing little corners smell of strong coffee, sweet hot pastries and hopefully a tinge of chocolate.

In my imagination -- and sometimes in reality -- people talk energetically at their tables as they sip their tea or coffee.  They discuss candidly their daily challenges.  I sense a vigor in their eyes & voices -- perhaps an underlying spirit of optimism, even in the face of darker emotions also present. 

These people speak from the perspectives of real women and men. Real people who try to build a meaningful life as they live, work and lead. 

The path forward proves not often crystal clear.  That's why we talk together.

After a few minutes inside such a place, I begin to feel a peacefulness that comes with sensing that I am not alone in my stresses.  I find I can explore more ways to bring both a smile and persistence to my own attempted solutions.

I believe it is exactly this encouragement that I and others sometimes need to try our new ideas with courage and intellect.

And then we find meaning.  Continuous renewal does not have to reach a screeching halt at a special age or on a specific previously-chosen path.  In my mind's cafe, we feel motivated to create, to learn, to love – to live – through all aspects of our lives.

OK, maybe I simply drink too much coffee and that stimulates my imagination, but…

Can I bring you a cappuccino, double espresso or a latte? Here in my little virtual corner we can spend a few moments in a place where real people who lead and live can be heard and understood.  Perhaps even a little inspired. 

We will tell our stories with our own voices to support each other in learning and trying, laughing a bit to stay healthy along the way.

Because of course it is important to always serve a little piece of chocolate on the side.

Keys to my heart?

Well, no shiny metal objects open my whole heart. That's for people to do.   But these keys do open the doors to a place that I hope will be a next step in bringing even more heart to my work:

My new office.  Just one floor up from where I am now. Literally.

I will create it as a studio - an atelier we would say here - to support the kind of activities that bring emotion to conversations among people who are somehow surprised that their experiences count for something really important. Like I was once some years ago.

In other words, through these doors I will try my next experiment in creating my own meaningful career & extending it to others.

It will take months to fully get the ideas I have in my head to show visibly in the rooms.  (The worktables alone need eight weeks for delivery here...)

Yet yesterday, I went home with the keys in my hand.  That was already exciting enough to make my heart leap a little!

Simple pleasures of winter

I know I tend to make my own life complicated.  I seem to always want to try the next new thing.

This year, I'm trying to slow down and focus on doing one good thing at a time. I want to figure out what "living simply" means to me.

Last Sunday, not your classically beautiful sunny mountain day, I took a simple walk with a friend. Cold, damp, a little windy at the top of the hill.

And still beautiful.  Enjoying a good conversation, a little movement. A slow winter day.