Amusings

Three Years At A Time

I made a realization about a week ago. My life has been organized chronologically into groups of three years. That means, in the past 20 years or so, every three years something new and exciting happens.

At this time, I’m at the end of a three year cycle. The next one should happen sometime in the next, uh, 6 months or so.

Has anyone noticed this in their life? I’d love to hear about it.

The past three years : Finished 2 1/2 years on the road with the Les Miserables US Tour, started settling back into freelancing oboe life in NYC like I did before the tour. Felt uneasy being back in a previous cycle, meaning my life was seeming just like it was before the tour: then suddenly, BANG, the COVID -19 Pandemic hits. I am thrown all the way down to Oaxaca, Mexico, to live with my husband again who had been designing our fantastic Mexican casa in Puerto Escondido. Who knew we would be there for over one year.

Well, the house has 5 levels, 4 bedrooms, a pool, a palapa, and a great view of the Pacific. But I just kind of like this picture because it’s so “3-D”. It’s the main entry to the house, called Casa Cangrejos. My husband, Mexican artist Humberto Del Olmo, designed it. I think it’s truly a work of art. More on that in a later post.

But I ramble. This is an introductory rambling post, to my new version of my blog, and it’s called “Amusings”. During the previous 3-year cycle, on tour, I started a blog called “Magical Les Miztery Tour”, and I posted about 9 times, musing (as I still am) on my life, travel, Mexico, the tour I was on. Somehow it stopped, partly because I got a slap on the wrist from someone from my show, who thought I was being critical of the show in a rambling post about freedom of expression. That blog post has been removed, but it scared me off for a few years. But I feel the urge to create again.

How do you do that? Where do you draw the line between writing a diary and posting things for others to read that may inspire them? I don’t know, but I hope to refine that line as I go through this process, culminating in the beginning of an exciting new 3 year cycle where I become rich and famous. (Joking!)

I’m back in Brooklyn, New York, living with my husband and Mexican rescue dog, Jacinta, in our one-bedroom apartment. I’m playing oboe and spend most of my time making reeds, practicing, and playing concerts in many different groups around the city.

But mostly – I search every day for that calmness. Someone said to me recently that the pandemic has changed us all in ways that we don’t even know about yet. How true. The feeling I try to find every day is one of not grasping, but riding a wave, like surfing, knowing exactly what move to make, or not make. I had a lot of grasping feelings during the pandemic. When I came back to play music with people, that feeling went away, at least while I was sitting there playing with my colleagues. It was the MUSIC that did it, being a part of the flow. That search is my way now, until the next 3 year cycle begins.

As I said above, I would love to hear about other people’s 3 year cycles! Please leave a comment below!