finding joy in a website & the season

First of all, forgiveness. I'm writing with my left hand after replacement surgery for my right shoulder. My typing will be even funkier than usual. I'm counting on you to look beyond. I'm just glad to be back in touch —and finally able to announce my new site! corkyparker.com. First conceived of as my "author’s page” to support my book launch of La Finca, Love, Loss & Laundry on a Tiny Puerto Rican Island next Spring, the site has grown to reflect my ‘greater self’, or at least a wider reflection of other things I'm up to. In hopes that we can connect through any of them, I’m including places I rent here in Port Townsend and Marrowstone Island for a week or a month at a time, (forever trying to be an innkeeper again ;) creative projects, art, community activism, etc. I've had a lot of fun with the site. Feels so good to be back in my old self saddle of writing & design. It actually has been a neat, rather unexpected, tool to help me focus on what's most important in my life right now —and prioritize what I want to do next. It's always the mix of words and pictures to create a sense of place —that I Love. (funny note to self: my computer capitalizes Love in dictation. hmmmmm…) Anyway…After the giant push to get all the artwork done for the book this summer, it's been great to have the site to work on and play with as tool to connect with folks.

Not necessarily my best piece but I do like the message.

As I get older, and hopefully wiser -- on a good day, it's clearer than ever before that play, and connection are a lot of what it's all about for me . A few years back when one of my kids was struggling with a hard time and called me to ask what “it” — the answer or purpose of life— was all about, I told him I’d have to get back in a couple days. Because he's a scientist, I couldn't bullshit him with a pat answer. At the same time I was working on a collage for my granddaughter's second birthday. In working/playing with that, the simple answer came to me. Even in these complicated, sometimes dark, certainly foggy– unclear times, for me — the answer might be as simple as finding, creating, and sharing Joy. For me, the processes of finding, creating and sharing joy can come from creating artwork, to donating to the legal teams working for the families separated by the facsist white house administration, or from bringing a neighbor harvested garden vegetables to binging on The Crown. It's sort of includes it all– from letting go to holding , on; from helping out to laughing it off. And certainly, in all that, play and connecting with folks are some of my favorite ways to do all.So — on that high note, I welcome you to the new site — hope it helps us connect somehow! — and wish you JOY in the season, and coming year. Let’s make it a good one! corky