Something had to give...

...in my schedule and lately it's been blogging.

I knew I was behind in Mojo Mom blogging but it truly boggled my mind this morning to see that I hadn't posted since August 31. My apologies!

I thought that once school got back into session I'd smoothly pick up and move forward with all my newly restored work time. But I've been faced with a juggle of daily projects versus long-term projects. Always a tension between the two, isn't there? Getting the daily writing done makes one look productive, but sometimes you have to focus on a long-term project or it won't get done. That's where I a have been.

I'll announce my new project soon and I hope to catch up on my writing as well. I have some good pieces developing in my head that I am itching to get down.

But first I have a story that may be helpful to others who are going through change. We have been raising caterpillars over the past several weeks. At first we thought they were monarch caterpillars that we found in abundance last summer. But once they pupated, instead of the green-with-gold-flecked jewel you'd get from a monarch, the chrysalis was an ugly, brown, barklike nugget. In my book I wrote that it's important not to romanticize change. The unexpected homely chrysalis was a good reminder of this for me. Change can be hard work, difficult, scary. But in the end, we can hope that a wonderful new butterfly will come out of it all.

It turns out that our caterpillars are black swallowtails. Here's an amazing time-lapse video of one pupating into a chrysalis. And here is the butterfly that will emerge from the transformation. A beautiful image to focus on!



I can't be the only Mojo Mom who is facing more change than she expected this fall. Let me know if you are, too.

***
An update: I found this video of a monarch caterpillar changing into a chrysalis. You have to see it to believe it. The change comes from the inside as the chrysalis splits the old caterpillar skin open. I had always thought the chrysalis formed from the outside. Very interesting. There were several videos to choose from on YouTube but this was my daughter's favorite.

Mojo at Every Age and Stage of Life

This is going to be a quick posting, one I'd like to write more about, but this week I have been waylaid by a stomach bug and my better instincts are saying "go to bed early while you can."

I am usually annoyed by Newsweek's section on The Boomer Files, mostly because I think the whole magazine could be considered to be The Boomer Files, but this week, following the three pages of pointless soundbites on "Celeb Boomers: 3 Things to Do Before Death" we finally come on a substantial gem, a preview of Sara Davidson's upcoming book Leap! What Will We Do With the Rest of Our Lives?

Though she was a best-selling author, journalist and screenwriter, Davidson found that at age 57, she was at home with no kids and no work. Unable to get hired to write in Hollywood, she entered a phase that she called "the narrows," "the rough passage to the next part of life. In the narrows, you're in the dark, stripped of what you you thought was your identity." That resonated strongly with my perception of the early days of motherhood. Life offers many transitions that call for a mojo recharge! Davidson gathered the courage and energy journey to reinvent herself. As she tried new things, she gave up her expectations of what she thought this phase of life would be like, and embraced the unknown. Some paths were dead-ends, and some hoped-for opportunities were closed off. Finally, she felt the courage and commitment needed to write her new book.

What strikes me most about Davidson's story is that she had to work her way through many discouraging situations before she could find her new path. Even as she was turned down for writing jobs, she created a writing opportunity for herself. Even when others were telling her "You can't," she did it anyway. If she had given up sooner, her story might have sounded like failure. But she kept moving until she found a way forward.

Davidson says that everyone goes through the narrows. In Leap! she interviews over 150 people about this transition. Each person's journey will be different, but Davidson offers hope to her fellow travelers. She says, "I can tell you that there's sunlight and air on the other side. What became clear for me may be utterly different than for you....Expectancy is in the air. The country ahead, from the scouting I've done, is not arid but rich and unpredictable, and I've come to be half in love with uncertainty."