Stumptown Publishing Still Lives.

We put out Two-Lane Livin' for 10 years, but then what?

For 10 years, Two-Lane Livin’ Magazine, in print, carried a 99% readership rate. From the very first issue, we could not print enough. For the first five years, it was fun. The second five years, not so much. The magazine outgrew us, our time, our ability, our budget. Even so, when we ended the magazine, I mourned for nearly a year. (You can see the online flip version of the last two years here.)

The magazine came to an end, but Stumptown Publishing, LLC did not. Though I took a year off from the business (and then inherited the Library Director position), In 2019 I released three books of my own and began working on a single project: “10,000 Days in the Woods” with retired forester, Russ Richardson. The first book in his series will be released in Spring 2022. (More on that later.)

I had other plans and projects before Covid hit: online courses, in-person writer’s workshops, and retreats. Covid brought other ideas including video, podcasts, freelance copywriting, transcription. Meanwhile, my husband launched his own business during the pandemic, and I, like many of my generation, became my mother’s medical power of attorney.

Did you wonder, when the pandemic hit, how your life would change as a result? I remember thinking, back then, “we will all be changed by this.”

Just a few months ago, I had a plan and a path. And then I decided to go a different way. I became a part of The Great American Resignation. “Workers and talent have spent the pandemic reevaluating their priorities and values, leading them to leave their places of work or demand more from their employers.”

I founded Stumptown Publishing in January 2007, and I’m embracing it again in January 2022. I’m also stepping up as business manager for Frank’s business, Graybeard Services & Consulting, LLC. I intend to spend more time with family, with Dandelion our cat, and our chickens, and Mattie, our new beagle pup. Animals live in the present, and they remind me to do the same.

I plan to bring out some of my pre-Covid plans, brush off the dust, and get at it again. I want to do my own thing again, and I’m blessed that I am able to do so. I’m counting my blessings in 2022, and have started a gratitude journal. Perhaps you might do the same. We have lost so much to the pandemic, but we are still quite blessed.

I hope your year is off to a good start. How many good things, how many blessings have you had already this year? I have been recently needed to care for my elderly Mother. This could be viewed as a burden, but the blessings in my life keep it from being so. When you make notes and keep count, you start to see how good life can be.