Week Four - Newbie on the Loose

Slippery, icy, slick, grey, cloudy, crisp, packed, frozen, cold, quiet, pleasant, satisfying. 
 
This past week it was brought to my attention that I made a little blunder regarding the name of my blog.  The trail I’ve been hiking is indeed not called the Bristol Cliffs, its called the ledges.  (What?  How do you name your blog the wrong thing and realize it a month later?!  So embarrassing.) Turns out the Bristol Cliffs are not the ridge I can see from my backyard, but are just south of the village a few miles, above Lower Notch Road.  What’s rather hilarious is that I actually knew this, but somehow forgot!  I even lived in the nearby town of New Haven for a year before we moved to the village of Bristol, and our house had an incredible view of these lovely Bristol Cliffs, and somehow, well, I made a newbie mistake.  (Rather publicly.  Sigh, shuffle feet.)
 
This week I am reminded of what it feels like to be a beginner and to be new to the neighborhood.  It seems like this theme has been resonating in all parts of my life lately.  I am new to the idea of starting my own business.  I am new to the process of starting an Arts in Education program from scratch.  My husband got a new job this week.  We got a new car this week.  I have a handful of new voice students who are beginners and exploring voice for the first time.  My lessons with them have been full of the notions of starting fresh, anew, being patient and kind and forgiving of early stumbles and the challenges of starting a new practice.  Its only fitting that these very words should ring true as great advice for myself as I start my own new endeavors, like writing a blog. 
 
My first response when a native Vermonter emailed me last week to kindly offer up the news of my mix-up, was deep embarrassment.  Like, the kind when you want to shut the door and hide your head in your hands with eyes wide and a rather horrified look on your face.  And then a few moments later my sense of humor returned – thank God – and I laughed out loud for a while and I imagined the town of Bristol chuckling at my post on Front Porch Forum the other night when I invited them to read about my adventures.  I’m sure a handful of folks got a good laugh at a flatlander that night.  I know I did!
 
What’s amazing to me is that it took 3 weeks for me to realize this beginner’s blunder of mine!  This little time lapse says to me a few things… I’m not the only one who mistakenly calls the ledges the cliffs. I mean, it is a little confusing.  And I may live and own a home in Bristol, but I’ve got a ways to go before I’ll be a local.  And I’ve got no problem with that – everyone has to start at the beginning, and so I shall.  I’m glad to know I can do it while laughing at myself and moving onward up and down the hill again this week.  Slippery and wobbly though it was, it was still a great hike and I’ll keep chuggin’ along with a new blog title to boot: 52 Weeks of the Ledges Trail.