The Beauty of Chapters
Morning Coffee 49: March 20th, 2023
It’s still dark outside. 31 degrees. Just sat down at Downtown Jeaux coffee shop to begin putting this week’s newsletter together. I have some bigger stories to tell this week, seems like a good time to write about them. Let’s begin.
The Box is our metallic prison. Hunter-Seeker. Dune audiobook. Dune movie. Dune 2 will be here in a few months. The Last of Us is over. Your Honor is over. Currently watching Snowfall and The Mandalorian. Tinkering with the Miyoo Mini.
The Beauty of Chapters
This week on Morning Coffee, I discuss how important chapters are in my life. Before that, I share another Office Hours, and write about my anniversary.
Office Hours 3 was released this past Friday. I privately set a goal to release one a week during March, each Friday night. Only two left, then I’ll take a break and prepare for more down the road.
A Face to Call Home
This past weekend was my first anniversary with Olivia. I’ve been reflecting on how special it is to share a life with her. To have a little family together, to share a home, and to have all these little house projects we’re always working on.
It’s easy to keep focusing on the next project and whatever’s pulling at us in the current week, but it’s moments like this that allow me to look back at what’s been accomplished in such a short amount of time. The home and culture we’ve built for our little family. What an incredible journey it’s been.
The Beauty of Chapters
What we call the beginning is often the end,” wrote T S Eliot. “And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.” - Madeleine Dore
It’s one of my favorite feelings. When chapters in my life are wrapping up, and new ones are beginning. I’m currently in that kind of season. On the edge of goodbye and hello. Things that were in the waiting are now here. I bought a little alarm clock that sits across the room from the bed. It sounds off at five, and I have to get out of bed to stop the beeping. A little extra help to get the day started. Now it’s time to pack and drink some water.
As I walk out of the dark room, to my left, I see through the window the almost finished office that we’ve been working on for a few years now (planning, preparing for, constructing). The paint is on the wall. The floor is next, then the furniture and computers. It makes me think about what’s almost here. When going to work now, it feels like closure is approaching. I’m less than a month away from no longer having to drive there. A new position starts up for me: reporting to a new boss, from a new location (my house).
The Dune audiobook adds some eerie ambient music behind the last few paragraphs of a chapter. You can feel the momentum build as the words begin shrinking down to silence, and then chapter is over. The next chapter starts with a female voice setting the stage for what’s to come. Those hard lines create separation and breathing room. Because of this, each chapter is standing on its own and not blurring with the ones around it. There’s a certain cadence to this package that I really appreciate. It helped me reflect on ways to implement this in my own life.
The first quarter of the year is almost over (Jan, Feb, Mar). The second quarter is about to begin, and this is just one more way to start a new chapter. Knowing that the year is divided up evenly in a way that allows us to let go of the past and create a fresh start. Because of this, I’m beginning to wrap up areas of my life that served me well in the first quarter, but are no longer useful for the next.
“Perfect happiness is the privilege of deciding when things end.” - Sarah Manguso
