On November 30 the movers came and packed and loaded all our belongings, and that evening we got on a plane and flew to Seattle, Washington. In the last 3 weeks we found a new apartment in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle, moved in and started unpacking. We’ve barely had time to [...]]]>

On November 30 the movers came and packed and loaded all our belongings, and that evening we got on a plane and flew to Seattle, Washington. In the last 3 weeks we found a new apartment in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle, moved in and started unpacking. We’ve barely had time to breathe let alone decorate for Christmas, but fortunately one of the radio towers in Queen Anne is decorated like a Christmas tree, so each night we fall asleep to the lights of a very tall and rather skinny tree sparkling in the sky outside our bedroom window.

This year the cards and presents that we’re sending are late, and all our decorations are in boxes waiting to be unpacked. We don’t even have a wreath on door. But we’re happy and healthy, and our family and friends are doing well, so I really can’t ask for much more.

In the immortal words of Dr. Seuss:

And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling:
How could it be so?
It came without ribbons! It came without tags!
It came without packages boxes, or bags!

And he puzzled and puzzled, till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before!
“Maybe Christmas,” he thought, “doesn’t come from a store.
Maybe Christmas… perhaps… means a little bit more.”

Merry Christmas everyone!!

On Sunday I turned 33. I’m getting to the age where birthdays start to seem bittersweet – it’s great to celebrate another year of life, but at the same time I know my years are limited. I realize I don’t know how many years I’ll get, but I know it’s not all that [...]]]>

On Sunday I turned 33. I’m getting to the age where birthdays start to seem bittersweet – it’s great to celebrate another year of life, but at the same time I know my years are limited. I realize I don’t know how many years I’ll get, but I know it’s not all that likely to be more than 100, and I’ve already used a third of that. It’s wondrous but frightening at the same time.

Jim gave me a really sweet card listing some cute and quirky reasons that I should be really glad to be 33. It was really nice of him to notice that I wasn’t really thrilled about it and to write such sweet and cheerful things to me; he could have just given me a store-written card. It might seem silly but those words mean more to me than an expensive gift.

Am I happy with how I’ve spent the last 33 years? In a lot of ways I am. I’ve had a lot of fun, and I’ve learned a lot. I’ve always valued the experience more than having something to show for my time, and I’ve had some really great experiences. I’m happy with who I am, and with the direction that I’m headed, and I’m learning a little about myself, and life, every day. That seems like a pretty good place to be at 33.

This is a stream-of-consciousness writing exercise from one of the books on writing that I am reading.  I really enjoyed it, so I thought I’d share.

Here are one hundred things I love, in no particular order:

When I finished my work contract last July, I was exhausted. I was completely burnt out from the weeks over the winter where I had worked 60 hours a week, working evenings and weekends to make the project a success. But in the end, it wasn’t a success. Facing funding issues, the [...]]]>

When I finished my work contract last July, I was exhausted. I was completely burnt out from the weeks over the winter where I had worked 60 hours a week, working evenings and weekends to make the project a success. But in the end, it wasn’t a success. Facing funding issues, the project was taken over by the oversight team, management and most of the contract staff were let go and a large portion of the project was cut. I disagreed with the way things were handled on a number of levels, and was glad when I finally got to leave. After I left I didn’t check in with friends still on the project to see how things were going. I didn’t want to know, and I didn’t care. It was time to let go and to move on, and I was ready.

What I wasn’t ready for was putting the pieces of my life back together. Since I had spent so much time focusing on the project, the rest of my life was completely out of balance. The pendulum swung the opposite direction, and I spent a lot of time sleeping in. I was tired all the time. When I wasn’t sleeping I rode my bike as much as possible. I had absolutely no desire to find another job, and that was okay as I was still being paid for the work I’d done on my previous contract. I found it hard to focus on anything, and I let my yoga practice fall to the wayside. I was lost.

I asked the universe for guidance, and looking back I believe I really did need to take the long way home. In the last five months I’ve rediscovered my truly creative self, someone I had lost when I left for college many years ago. She’d been trying to come back for years, but I had been too focused on other things to give her the attention she needed. Now I’m almost overwhelmed with creative energy, so much that I sometimes have a hard time falling asleep at night. I’ve rediscovered a rhythm in my life, and find that while my days are not filled with office work, they are happily filled nonetheless. And I’ve found my way back to the yoga mat, and to the peace, balance and sense of center that it brings. I am grounded, and more complete than I was before.

I am still looking for work. There are few positions in my industry as most companies put their project work on hold when the economy dips. But still I’m optimistic. I have more faith than ever that things will work out the way they are meant to. The path ahead is foggy and it’s hard to see what’s coming up, but I know that I’m ready for whatever life brings.