New set

What will the rain sound like at the new place?

A new set of conditions manifest before me: a new apartment in North Oakland, and the blank slate of a new configuration of where I live. New smells and sounds and patterns. Some new furniture, definitely new shelves and new rugs, with old paint colors I’ve loved placed on new walls.

This is the first time I’ve had a place to live on my own since I left my home in Providence, RI, in January 2014. I loved that apartment and deeply appreciated the sovereignty I had (in the autonomy sense of the word) of my life and my space. Chalk it up to being a designer, being tidy, knowing where everything is because that’s where it goes.

Nearly twelve years and nine moves later — between three cities and on two coasts — it’s time for that again.

A visual and spiritual reset — called in at this new time. I’ll be 54 in less than a month. I’m energized and I know my fuel sources.

A total conflation — along with newfound strength and clarity and focus.

I’m more compelled by the work I’m building than I have been since my first business, which I started when I was 24. I’m diving in like thirty years haven’t passed.

But before I dive into all that: a re-architecture of living, and then a big rest on a small island in the biggest ocean.

Then we go.