I could not have predicted what would ease into the space created by stepping down from the preschool job and saying goodbye to chickens. Certainly more of the same would have been reason enough to get up in the morning. More puppets and sliced apples with little ones. Another basket of eggs and fluffy chicks. Yet in their absence there is space for other things. 

Like the keys to the costume room. 

This week I signed a contract to be the costumer for the high school plays. Along with it comes the chance to teach sewing to a brood of students in a space that includes a dozen machines, bins of fabric, enough ribbon to encircle the world, more hats than a peddler arguing with a tree full of monkeys. 

It is a modest job in that it supposedly fits into six hours a week, but those minutes will ebb and flow with the intensity of two productions. One is in the winter, another in the spring. The first show will be The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe which will make good use of the racks of coats I noticed beside shelves of red capes and petticoats. There is a section for Victorian clothes, and one for uniforms. But costuming a play is not limited to finding the right garb in the depths of the theater basement. It means sewing. Hunting in thrift stores. Borrowing. Creating boards on Pinterest. 

Absolutely my cup of tea. 

It is interesting that finding a new passion can require us to let go of one we already love. Which would be a frightening proposition if not for the fact that the Director can see farther into the future than we can.