A Next Chapter
by BB Webb

We’re all constantly writing ‘next chapters’ to our lives, to our routines through opportunity, inspiration, boredom, or misfortune, forced by death or coaxed by our own desires, ambitions, and curiosity.  My last inspired big shift was prompted after a visit to Bozeman, Montana to celebrate my brother’s birthday and to attend the 100th anniversary of Yellowstone National Park.  It was 2016.  My Carl House business was in its 14th year and I knew I was ready to let go of that adventure and the stressors which accompanied it and to begin something new.

After watching Emmy Lou Harris and John Prine on stage at the Yellowstone event, my sister-in-law and I sat with another, (new) friend, basking in the afterglow of talent at the show.  We huddled under the stars, drinking wine, feeling the crisp evening Montana air, warmed by a campfire popping sparks of delight.  The new friend, a successful freelance film person, asked about my business and how close I felt I was to being at ‘job optional’ status.

“Job optional?” I mused, “what does that mean?” 

“It means that you don’t have to work, could take on a project you love, but you don’t need to continue to bring in dollars.”  

I laughed spitting out a bit of red wine doing so!

“Wow, I have all kinds of financial folks surrounding me in my business yet haven’t a clue if I could even sell my business at a profit, let alone be ‘job optional’.”

I’d weathered the 2008/09 downturn barely alive, nimbly avoiding business death by doing a fancy two-step fueled by fear, adrenaline, tenacity, and unwavering grit.  I survived that and a divorce the year before. It was a steamy and stressful few years.  I was ready for something new and his question piqued my curiosity!

Upon returning to Georgia, I went to work to soon discover my overall financial standing.  If I wanted to sell everything and move, let’s say, to Montana, to be near family, how might I do that?  I became fueled with excitement at the prospect and like a bird, off I flew!

I’ve experienced many large life transitions in my then 59 years and this one was motivated by an energy profoundly and magically unstoppable. I didn’t know exactly what I’d do once I sold everything, (I had a few ideas), knew I wouldn’t yet be ‘job optional’, but I was ready!  I trusted my gut and the momentum of my unfolding intention!

I immediately began looking up business brokers and a real estate agent in Bozeman and found a realtor who could assess the value of my main home and a flat I owned in Atlanta.  Boom!  The right people came rolling in.  In two months from my late August Bozeman birthday visit, I’d sold my Atlanta flat, found a business broker, and in three months, (November 2016), secured one of the last great foreclosures in Bozeman, (pre-real estate boom…lucky me)!  By December 2016 I had an offer on my business and was scheduled to close on my residence in February 2017.  I still had a parcel of 30 acres to sell behind my business. That sale would come four years later.

Once I’d planted the seed, the ‘how tos’ of moving into this ‘next chapter’ seemed to have a life of their own; I needed only to stay out of the way and work to make the best decisions possible.  The momentum was unstoppable.  It was an exhilarating energy…a cadence and flow I recognized and relish.

By the end of January 2017, a mere 5 months since the idea came to sell everything in Georgia and move to Montana, I found myself sending off two trailers of favored possessions, hugging some close pals goodbye, and driving 2000 miles west in my little Prius with three cats in a large cat carrier, my beloved dog Buddy in the front seat and a Thule carrying a few possessions and a favorite case of Rodney Strong Knotty Vine Red Zinfandel wine!  Three days later, in the middle of a tremendous Montana snowstorm, I was greeted in my new home by a loving family with food, wine, a few camp chairs, and a foam mattress for sleeping until the moving vans arrived.  It was an exciting entry into a ‘next chapter’ that I find nearly 6 years later, I’m still discerning.

I want to look at how we’re making new choices, navigating desired and not so desired changes, in our changing bodies, with people coming or going in our lives, how we play with the bright new younger generations coming up, opportunities now gone, taking on new work or projects we prefer, just managing or thriving financially and discerning what’s ‘enough’!

I want to explore the impact of losing loved ones, the dating scene, (should we choose), finding love, health challenges, being single, newfound freedoms, living alone, considering what ‘retirement’ might mean, and fulfillment.  I want to look at what, (for myself), and for others, (to quote a British profanity), we give a ‘bloody damn’ about at this point in life or what we don’t!

I’m finding this transition a bit more curious than others I’ve experienced and am exploring within myself and with others, why that is or why it’s maybe not for some.  I’m discerning the wisdom that comes perhaps only once we’ve rounded the sun a certain amount of times and I’m excavating for my own golden nuggets.

As a favorite actress, Glenn Close wrote in a recent Montana Outlaw article,

“I have less time in front of me than I have behind me.”  

I too am keenly aware of the time factor making this next chapter all the more rich and poignant.   As I transition to knowing where I currently most want to be, I find the need to set clear intentions to its unfolding!  My Next Chapters Podcast will be a start and I invite you to explore with me.

A bird symbol is predominate to me of late, that of the bluebird, its symbology fitting:

“The bluebird is a symbol of hope, love, and renewal and is also a part of many Native American legends.  It symbolizes the essence of life and beauty.  Dreaming of bluebirds often represents happiness, joy, fulfillment, hope, prosperity, and good luck.”

I’m reminded lately too of a quote from a favored film, “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”:

“Everything will be alright in the end, and if it’s not alright yet, it’s not the end!”

The ‘ends’ I imagine are the end of behaviors and situations no longer fitting.  Those behaviors that I, (or we), work to release as we welcome new and better fitting choices, choices that enlighten, bring joy, a new and better way of living in the world.  It’s here for us, our past the fertile soil from which to grow. I agree with the fond expression to ‘bloom where we are planted,’ however, am curious to find in myself and with others, if moving to a different more fertile ground might work better!

I hope you’ll visit my upcoming interviews and stories of others and some of my own.  I envision written and audio stories, a podcast of interviews in time, or maybe a program on NPR or a PBS special!  To be open is to be rich with possibility and, I am open!  It’s the dreams we have that propel us forward!

And please, drop a line should you be so inclined!  I’m intending a great continued journey and hope you’ll enjoy the trail with me.

With love, always with love,

BB Webb