Feeling Better & Seattle

After feeling kind of blue about the Boy for the past few days, I am starting to feel better. Maybe that time in the Lego room has helped. Maybe because my trip to Montana is coming up in less than a week. Maybe my grief is starting to abate.

Maybe I am feeling better because fall has started in a good way. Of course, I miss the start of school for the Boy and being part of the school community, but arts season is upon us, thank god. I think the art gods and fairies decided to start right after the equinox when the daylight in Seattle shrinks to nothing. Last weekend, I saw Whim W'him Seattle Comtemporary Dance Company with a friend. Contemporary dance can be kind of weird (there was one dance where the performers had made bizarre facial expressions the whole time), but it can be refreshing after seeing Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty over and over. While I love the Tchaikovsky ballets, they are very formal. This weekend will bring the Seattle Children's Theatre opening night and Carmina Burana at the Pacific Northwest Ballet.

Which makes me think about Seattle. I met guy on my recent trip to Chicago who said his favorite city in the U.S. is Seattle. I can agree with that, but I wondered when he saw Seattle. It is easy to fall in love with Seattle in August. If he had said he loved Seattle in December, then I would have been seriously impressed, but then maybe not if our moderate winter beat the arctic chill of midwest in the winter. Instead, he saw Seattle in April, May and September, which is just about right. The weather in Seattle can be kind of fussy then, but can also be lovely. More than other cities, I think the ever changing weather can play a big role in how Seattle feels. Any season in Chicago can have bright, blue sunny days, even super cold days in January. Seattle isn't so fortunate. In addition to rainy winters, the daylight hours shorten from sixteen hours at the summer solstice to less than eight at the winter solstice.

Today was a typical Seattle fall day. The morning starts of cold and dreary, and then by the afternoon the clouds have burned off and it is sunny and warm.

I guess my mood this week has reflected the daily weather patterns. It started out kind of blah, but then slowly got better. I guess my mood is getting better, too. Last night, I was on the Wilderness Therapy mediation phone call for parents. Even though the Boy finished a month ago, I love to list to Hector's soothing voice one a week. (Hector is the Yoda of parent/child relationships in Wilderness therapy.)

The first half of the call is listening to Hector. The second half parents get to ask a question to the group. I realized how much better I am feeling when I was able to offer support and advice to a newbie parent on the call who was overwhelmed with grief that her daughter was sleeping under a tarp in Colorado instead of attending her Homecoming Dance.

I think right now my mood about the Boy would be like noon at Pike Place Market--gray and kind of gloomy, but the forecast shows brighter skies coming up soon.

Morning

Morning. I had to sneak that geranium in the left corner so this picture wasn't too bleak.

Pike Place Market at lunch. Still kind of gray.

Elliott Bay in the evening

Along Elliott Bay

Mt. Rainier is hiding behind clouds.