I hope the spookiness of October has faded and the upcoming month presents many opportunities to dig deep on what really matters most in life.
Black Friday.
Yes, I’m kidding. But we both know that’s what the world is about to tell us.
That sea of external messages we live in—breathing them as continuously as fish do water—makes it easy to forget what matters most to us. For you, maybe it’s your kids. Or your novel. Maybe it’s sailing. Or a new tablecloth. I don’t judge, I celebrate. You do you. For me it’s health, connection, and creativity.
But the messages have their own priorities, and starting this month they’ll be coming at us hard and heavy: Give Amazon the largest possible share of our wallet. Turn groups of our fellow human beings into mortal enemies. Be angry. Be afraid. Set our expectations of ourselves too high. Try to buy love with gifts we can’t afford. Feel bad about our imperfect weight, our squeaky-wheeled suitcase, our green bean casserole that doesn’t look like it came from Ina Garten’s kitchen.
I wish I could share the magic antidote to the 21st century. Mostly I’ve just been trying—in this moment of relative calm before the storm—to take the opportunity to decide what’s on my Matters Most list, before the world fills in the blanks for me.
Health - I want to continue to make the (mostly) positive long-term investments in food, exercise, and sleep that have led to compounding returns in feel-good-ness.
Connection - I’m an introvert by nature, but I love people and am exceedingly lucky to have amazing ones in my life. Still, I’ve become a bit of an accidental hermit since Covid and aim to change that a little bit at a time.
Creativity - I wrote about 9% of the upcoming novel in October, which feels great. Even better, while some first drafts tend to be really sketchy, this one started pretty tight. The characters, action, and setting have been clear to me, so I’ve been jazzed to get at it every morning. Much as I’d love that to continue, I know well enough by now that sometimes I’ll be slogging through oatmeal and just have to keep going as I’m able.
Either way, my intention is to keep putting my butt in that seat and see how it goes. Whatever drama develops, my just-between-us-secret is that it will take place on a 19th century clipper ship. :)
Meanwhile, Colin and I are super excited about our Garcia 45 to come (exactly 3 years out), and traveled to Annapolis last month for a sea trial on one.
It turned out to be the most hilarious sail of our lives.
Twenty minutes dock-to-dock gave us sunshine and 4 knots (thus a full hoist), followed by rain, then a screaming 30 knot squall hit dumping hail so thick we couldn't see the bow, (leading to a tout suite effort to drop those sails), then back to calm sun with a full rainbow to let us know Mother Nature was only messing with us.
We were a little pre-occupied in the thick of it so only have the before and after shots to share, but the great news is we couldn't possibly have given the Garcia more extreme conditions for her test sail—and she behaved beautifully. Next time, though, we're bringing the foulies! :)
And I was completely honored this past month to be interviewed by Kate Catalano Collins for a front page article in the Ithaca Journal—the result of me taking one of those baby steps up terror mountain and making the pitch. :)
May you have a most meaningful November, whatever that looks like for you.
Fair winds,
Cheyenne
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