Hold your breath for the release, take two

Almost five years ago, I wrote about adaptive cycles.

The cycle has four phases:

1. Rapid growth
2. Conservation
3. Release
4. Reorganization

2010 was my year of rapid growth. I wrote thirty-four blog posts. I exploited "new opportunities and available resources," like HECUA and Mhonpaj's Garden.

Photo by Emily Lund.

From Summer 2011 to Spring 2012, I conserved, accumulating supervised hours during my dietetic internship.

Then, my marriage ended.

Next is the release phase – the system comes undone. Bound up resources are released, structure breaks down.

Summer 2013 to Spring 2014 – phew. I relinquished my position with the Hunger and Environmental Nutrition RDs, I watched the clock on my tenure with the Hampden Park Co-op board, I shed and shed and shed.

Photo by Garnet Bruell.

The cycle continues: reorganization. "From the chaos of release," I wrote, "options open up,"

Writing opened up; opened me up. Just a fissure in the shell last January, prized wider and wider by steady encouragement and example.

CRACK and I'm reading a poem in front of a handful of strangers in West Virginia.

CRACK and I'm reading five poems for young food professionals, dear friends, my parents, rapt.

Photo by Eric Sannerud.

This chick has a wing free.