Oh my Goodness it's UP!

Two men on ladders putting up the Firefly Creative Writing sign in front of the Studio.

Last night when I was filling the kettles and getting settled to teach a Life Stories class, a burly guy walked in.

I hurried over with a curt, "Can I help you?"
He said "We're here to install your sign."
And then everything changed.

Have you ever had one of those landmark moments that you didn't realize would be a landmark moment until it happened? I knew we were getting a sign. I designed it and paid for it. I knew it would be up this week. But it wasn't until I was standing there on the sidewalk in my socks with my class participants watching them hoist it up and click it into place that I really felt it.

We have a storefront. Why is this still news to my heart?

The feeling of arrival doesn't always come when we expect it to. We work and we work and we work — we write and we edit and we change things and we write more — and it never feels like it's going to end. And then something changes, a click occurs, and we're not where we were.

(You can catch the actual click right here.)

I'm going to remember this when I'm in the middle of my next creative project. The middle is long and messy and requires enormous patience and grace. But if we keep working, something does change.

Will you come toast this change with us? If you are in Toronto we would LOVE to share this big joy with you. June 29th, 5-10pm drop-in, 1898 Danforth Ave. Bree is baking. Rebekka at Alchemy Pickle Co is making a keg of rhubarb-ginger soda. For weeks we've been cutting up poems and sealing them into little envelopes to give out. We're lighting up our sign for the first time at 9:30. If you're a hugger, there will be hugs.

This is a big moment and we have a lot of joy to share. Whether you're taking a workshop now or haven't been by in years or you're brand new and standing on the sidelines, we want to see you there.

In it with you,