Hi Elsa….I think you are so right about this. There are many areas of my life that I see don’t work for me anymore either and I am okay with it. I actually really like it.

We had a funeral this week and I used to have to be the one in charge. I am still in charge, but I don’t take on everything like I used to and when I am done, I am done. People wanted to stay late, and I said no, I have had enough and you guys need to move this party elsewhere, I am tired and am going to bed. And I was okay with that. I knew that I had done everything up til that moment to the best of my abilities and after that….well, it doesn’t matter anymore.

I no longer want to wear tight anything…..jeans, skirts, pants….I want to feel good and able to move with ease.

I no longer want to be out late with friends. I am so liking staying in and reading again!

This is slightly off-point, but still relevant, I think: I am one of those writers who won’t talk about what I’m writing. I mean, I will let people read pages once they’re written and I’ll discuss a plot point or two (like I did on here, when I was looking for astrology help) but I won’t TELL the whole story. I can only tell it once, and it has to be on the page, or I lose the drive. So I can see how, once having told the stories, you’re sort of “done.”

But I also used to teach, and I had certain anecdotes I told my students, to make certain points. And what’s funny is I tend not to tell those anecdotes anymore. But I do now tell anecdotes about the students and the way those stories worked or didn’t work for them.

So, if I may be so bold, Elsa, I’m guessing you might not tell those stories again, but I think you’ll still tell stories. Though the frames will be a little different. How could it be otherwise?

Russian history couldn’t be taught after 12 November 1989 as it had been before. The world changed when the Berlin Wall fell. Why should our personal lives be any different?

kasemenova – I have never been paid to write a story in my life! I am paid to astrologize. Being compared to Hemingway and Van Gogh is nice but…

The main thing (as I wrote on the boards) is I am here to SERVE. I know this is true. I am to help people so having (relentlessly) been channeled in this direction, I have to conclude I can be of more service doing this… than that.

I think the Hemingway post is in the filter..

I think we’re working with different definitions of the word storyteller, Elsa. Because I think you are paid to tell stories. They may be a fairly restricted form of story (with the chart as a basis) but you have to put it in a form someone can *use*. You have to make a narrative of it. Your clients could have someone else tell them the story of their chart, no?

Also, I don’t know how ‘monetized’ your blog is so I can’t exactly argue that you’re paid for storytelling through it, but still, I’m guessing a fair number of people (like me) hang out here w/o having paid you to personally astrologize for us simply because we want to hear your stories. I’m more or less done with my astrology research (for the time being, anyway) and yet I keep showing up here. There are a zillion places I could find out, say, what transits are coming up, but I come here to find out, because I like the way YOU tell me.

I think I’ve not got a good handle on what kind of writing you were doing before, so this may be part of my confusion–it sounds like it was more straight-up stuff–but I wanted to make the point that I do consider you a storyteller.

I also, btw, don’t think of “serving” and storytelling as oppositions. I’m not sure why it has to be one or the other. You actually remind me a lot of one of my favorite writers on the planet, and I cannot tell you how much her storytelling has served me. And millions of others, judging by her sales figures. (It’s Annie Lamott, btw, in case anyone is wondering.)

Love Annie Lamott!

But I know what you mean. It takes a certain grace to acknowledge that things are moving on, and that the time has come to focus on something else. For now. And that it may well time for one of the other Ready in Waiting Archetypes to show up.

But I don’t think it means that those avenues are necessarily closed forever, although they may be. But maybe it’s just time develop or focus on some other aspects.

For example, one of my creative passions is photography, since fairly early on. I have always had many cameras, and have many pics published, sold a few pictures for big bucks. But, as much as I thought that I wanted to be a real pro, it never happened. I go through these cycles where I become immersed in other things, or just turned off at trying to make money at it.

But it remains my secret treasure and therapy and outlet and for just in case the moment should strike, I always have a camera or two with me at the ready. For my own soul if nothing else.

Wonder what was happening in 2007? I wrote a ton of stuff and into 2008. And there were a lot of other writers on the boards. Now? I’ve got writers block and the landscape where I used to write is like a ghost town…

brizo, in 2007, Jupiter was in Sadge.

Also, twitter and fb cater to the short attention span / less investment and are another sign of the times.

“skills are perishable”- wow, i’ve never thought of it like that. i must say that it scares the crap out of me, especially while thinking about how much time and effort is put into “skill building” and “refining skills”. it could just go “poof”?

but, i wonder if maybe the skills are always there, undergoing the same transformation/restorations that we do, and waiting to make an appearance at a later date, in a different form- or taking a different role in a person’s expression of them.

maybe you are right- that the skills are just gone, but i like to think of them as sleeping (optimistic Jupiter rising conj. sun) or maybe that a person who is challenged and changing is outgrowing a certain expression of the skill.

i feel this a lot- usually makes me feel ambiguous about whether or not i’m doing what i’m supposed to be doing.