I’ve been cusping for the last five weeks. I’m not sure if this is actually a word, but it describes what I imagine is the pull one feels when born “on the cusp” of a star sign. I’m no longer “back there”, but nor have I “moved on.” I’m in-between, at the end of my four months in Costa Rica but not yet beginning my next domicile in Montreal.

I met Fiona in California on March 11th for a week-long road trip. Yesterday, I flew into Toronto from Chicago after seeing Mads, and in between I spent a week in Mexico, as per my last post, as well as returned to Costa Rica to pack up. Tomorrow I drive to Montreal, but I don’t stay there quite yet. I’ve got a quick trip into Maine before I settle into my next longer-term stay in Montreal.

In this cusp time, in the past five weeks that is, I have slept in ten different beds (yes, I counted them), and will sleep in two other beds, in two different countries, before I get to my 13th bed since March 11th next Wednesday in Montreal.

It is a little wearying, I won’t deny it. Yet it is almost always tinged with an excitement, a curiosity as to what might happen, what I might see, or think, or experience. These adventures are often little - an evening at Second City comedy in Chicago, a vintage fair in Toronto, the elephant seal colony in California, avocado toast for breakfast on my own in a delightfully-friendly restaurant in Lincoln Park - but the ever-changing nature of my life makes small events like these that much more meaningful.

I once read that it is the repetitive nature of our lives, of our schedules, that makes life feel as though it is whizzing by so much quicker as we age; unlike those years of wonder as a child, when so much was new and ever-changing that a week took forever.

Before I left Chicago, Mads read my cards. I think my interesting year is going to get more interesting, if we have interpreted the cards well. I’ll keep you posted.

The evening that Mads and I went to Second City was fabulous. It's classic Chicago entertainment and many now-famous celebrities began their comedic career here: Alan Alda, Bill Murray, Catherine O’Hara, John Belushi, Mike Myers, Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, the list is endless! But more than the comedy, we met up with long-time friends from Cayman and four of their friends, some of whom I had met before. The camaraderie was lovely. Out on an evening in a big city, the light slowly sinking into night, the excitement of a pub beforehand, lots of chit-chat, then the thrill of great comedy in an established venue.

It underlined the importance of community to me. Community can be fleeting – a quick meet up with friends who live far away to share an evening together. Or catching up with neighbours from the street. It’s never life on repeat, there are always new stories. Spending time with other people means not controlling the conversation, being open to jinks in discussion and having unexpected laughs. I like it. I’d like more of that, please.

I feel that I am becoming more and more present every day in my life. Finishing up the book that I wrote with Fiona’s life prompts has helped reinforce that I am a writer. My words resonate, and I am endlessly surprised when I reread what I wrote months before. So my purpose is less about what I want to do to make the world a more beautiful place, or where I want to live, but rather how can I use words to reach other people? To emotionally connect or at least affect others, and perhaps advance causes by writing stories that resonate. 

If I can figure that out, I suspect I will feel multi-dimensional.

Any tips or suggestions always welcome. A journey is started with a single step.

Best Birthday card EVER!