It’s funny how when big life events happen, they cause you to immediately go into “life-revision” mode whereupon you look at your life as it currently is and determine if it’s time to make changes.
Hurricane Helene just did that. I live in Western North Carolina, in one of the hard-hit areas of the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. I am fortunate: I did not experience the problems with power, access to water, and flooding that many people I know did.
It makes me grateful for every drop of running water, and every kilowatt hour of electricity. For about a week, we did not have working cell phone towers, working land lines or internet. We were cut off from the rest of the world. When we got that back, I was so very grateful to be able to communicate and send messages to family and friends that we were safe.
Needing a Mental Break
In the days leading up to the storm, I was already needing a mental break. In June 2024 my three-year-old cat Elly developed heart failure. In July a close friend member was having some profound difficulties. In August a friend’s son was killed in a car accident and my father was diagnosed with cancer. In September, I was going to go help my dad with his cancer appointments and go talk to his doctors with him. But then the storm hit. All the roads into and out of WNC were closed. I wasn’t going anywhere. On top of that, two of my four cats would become seriously ill and no vets were open due to the storm’s aftermath.
Perhaps it’s all those events before that led to my life-review. Back in 2022, another difficult year, I also had a life-review. I quit my job, started Art Funky, and thought I was going to create paintings all day. It was because my sister passed away, I was treating two other of my cats for life-threatening illness, my dog passed away and my oldest cat came down with kidney disease. I didn’t know it at the time, but painting was therapy for me. Art therapy.
Reality set in and I knew I was going to have to return to web/graphic design. Though I would just “umbrella” it under Art Funky, the income would allow me to provide all medications and support for my now three special-needs cats.
And for a time I accepted a more structured work schedule.
But then a couple years later, having taken numerous continuing education courses on logo design and website design, learned HTML and CSS, and learned videography, I had this realization that too much of my life involved sitting in front of a glowing rectangular box.
Too much screen time and not enough green time
Indeed, I now think that is part of a larger problem in the world: too much screen time and not enough green time (time in nature, interacting with other people).
In the two weeks since the storm hit, I stepped back. Way back. I needed to heal mentally from everything while nursing my cats back to health. I am also acutely aware of people who have lost their livelihoods and who still don’t have power or running water. The flooding destroyed so much infrastructure to Asheville and surrounding areas. Where I live, we fared better: we had flooding a few years ago due to another hurricane. My county took measures to help mitigate future flooding. And it would have been so much worse if we hadn’t.
Connecting with strangers
In the aftermath, the community spirit that has come together is remarkable. And though I not been able to help in the way that I want to right now, I know that in the coming months when people aren’t talking about the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, extra support will be crucial. When the funds of the hard-hit tourism industry in my area won’t be there for small businesses. Or when all the immediate support of volunteer groups all over the US have left to move on to other projects.
I share all this because there is something else that is remarkable: the lack of screen time has afforded more green time. I read more, took longer walks. And noticed that people really wanted to connect.
Strangers would start to tell me their life story on my walks, or we’d talk about our dogs. Others would talk about the upcoming election. Still others began showing up regularly at town hot spots to check email and communicate with family outside of WNC. But still, the conversations flowed.
Though I too often use the excuse that I’m an “introvert” to not engage in conversation, I think I needed that connection, too.
And so I started this random habit of talking to people on my walks. Not every walk or every day. But just making a point to say more than just “hello” or give a smile. If a person seemed open to it, I’d strike up a conversation.
It’s so unlike me.
And so needed.
Walking with a stranger
Then last evening, I walked with a stranger. That’s not hyperbole: I encountered this beautiful soul walking her dog and I was walking my dog as well. We didn’t share life stories. But it was a rich conversation of snippets of lessons learned along the way: How she’s in my town because hers doesn’t have running water. How she helps people with the death and dying process. How I grew up in a nursing home around the elderly and frequently encountered death. How I want to communicate better with the humans because mostly I feel like I’m better at communicating with animals.
I didn’t know this beautiful soul, but we’d connected on a heart level.
The world needs more beauty
And it cemented the idea that the world needs more beauty. I’d already been thinking this but it hadn’t morphed into a solid idea, yet. But after years of taking courses and being taught to “niche” or that I can only talk about web design on a website made for web design, I’m tired. It’s only a tiny fraction of what I am. The robotic rigamarole of cranking out courses or following this formula to get followers has me weary.
I concluded that the world needs more beauty and ideas that lead people to appreciate its beauty: poetry, art, beautiful writing.
And so begins a new chapter. One in which my offering isn’t a new course or a new product. It doesn’t add to the capitalist wheel to generate “six figure incomes” or whatever. It’s my life’s work of adding beauty to the world in a gentle way, just as a butterfly can make you smile just by existing. I no longer care about whether this or that is “on brand,” or whether this post would resonate with the more design-focused audience. I am finally giving myself permission to write about whatever, put forth things that, if they make me smile, why wouldn’t they make someone else smile? If I stare at the clouds or make a feel good video, stare at the sunset or complete an intuitive painting, stare at a bug walking along a path or writing a poem to put to piano music, that is where my heart is leading me.
So be it. The Chapter of a New Beginning.
