Abide in the "Now"

Originally I was going to title this post "The sweet spot of life" but life has taken a turn recently.  So I decided to talk about living in the moment.

For me and my family we are in the sweet spot of life.  Jobs are going well.  Our son has a new tour he will be supporting with his audio skills.  He has a new girlfriend who I am liking more and more as I follow her on Facebook.  My husband and I are doing well health-wise and our jobs are going great.

I was reading a blog post by one of my writer friends and she was talking about her busy summer and finding time to write.  Yet her summer involves extended time with her kids and grandson, which are all good.

As I look at my life I often fret about what I am not doing.  I am not writing enough, I am not meeting my goals, I am not connecting with friends as I should.  I can beat myself up totally on all the things I am not doing.  I ruminate about the past and the things I did wrong.  I worry about the future and what will happen.  In the middle of all this worry and regrets I forget to abide in the "now" and just enjoy where I am.

Last week a wonderful woman in our church who was the linchpin of her very loved family passed away unexpectedly.  As I watch her husband, children and grandchildren in their grief I realize that for me I really need to spend more time in the now, letting those people who I love know that I do love them.

This does not mean that I will quit worrying and fretting but I just need to remind myself that the "Now" is all I really have.  The past is gone and the future is not guaranteed.

So abide in the "Now."  You will find, as I have, that it frees you from all the negativity in your life and lets you just exist in this moment.

Friends - they are priceless

I tend to be one of those people who do not have a huge group of friends.  I guess that goes along with being an introvert.  I like quiet pursuits and am able to keep myself occupied and engaged without much outside intervention.  Yet the friends I have mean everything to me.

First of all there is my partner in crime, who I have written about several times in this blog.  She is my husband's youngest sister.  We have known each other for years and have had many wonderful adventures.  She loves to plan fun jaunts and trips and I love to go on them.  So we are a great pair immersing ourselves in our love of cooking, foodie - ing and all things shopping.

Another example is my friend Joyce.  She lives across the street from me and we have been dog walking companions for several years.  Through the blazing heat of summer and the frigid cold of winter we can be seen walking our dogs around the neighborhood.

Recently I was telling Joyce that the person who does some yard work for me was not responding to my requests to trim back my lilac bushes after they bloomed this spring.  She said she loves to do that kind of work and would help me.

So Saturday afternoon she texted me and said she was in the mood to do some trimming of bushes.  I told her to come on over and we would tackle the lilacs.  It was a beautiful day, not too hot or too humid, so it was a perfect time to take care of this task.

She cut and I cleaned up.  It was a dirty task and we both attacked it the zeal.  Within an hour the bushes were cut back and I had cleaned up and bagged all the debris.

That is truly a friend who will take a Saturday afternoon and get down and dirty with a task I had been dreading for a while.  We had a great time and I totally appreciated her taking care of me.

Friends - they are priceless.  I am blessed to have them in my life.

Finding my new normal

In the last month my life has taken several unexpected turns.  I started a new job which is wonderful, challenging and lots of fun.  I am busy all day and my step counter shows by the end of the day.  I usually have my 10,000 step goal met by the time I head home after work.

At the other end of the feelings spectrum,  my precious dog, The Princess, passed from this life.  I was all right with making that hard decision to have her euthanized.  Yet since her passing I am struggling with missing her.  Sometimes I seem to see her lying in one of her usual spots out of the corner of my eye.  Then I look again and realize she is no longer with me.  I sometimes hear her barking in the middle of the night.  I know this is just the pathways of my brain letting go of memories, but it just brings the loss back to me again and again. Knowing The Princess it is very possible her spirit is still with me.

With my new job and lots more activity I am coming home at night just exhausted.  My plan is to get back to working out to focus on strength and core fitness.  Yet by the time I am home and get everything done, working out is the last thing on my list.  Fortunately I do get plenty of steps every day.

So it is time for a reboot of my goals for this year.  I plan to find the time for strength and core training.  I love how I feel and how strong I was getting doing this type of activity.  I will make time to get back to my writing.  I have skipped writing in this blog for a few weeks.  My goal is to do a post every week.

The only person who is going to make me physically strong and feel relevant today is me.  I need to focus on what is good for me and make time to do the things I enjoy.  I am in the midst of settling into my new job and will find my new normal soon.  

Sorry I have been missing

Life has gone from quiet and predictable to crazy busy for me.  I started a new job in the middle of May.  I am working for the same employer but in a totally different department and capacity.  For the last two weeks I have been trying to figure out what I should be doing and learning new things.  Most days I just go home and night and just crash from exhaustion.  I had no energy to write anything. 

Then I went to Tennessee to spend time with my Grandson while my son was touring with a different country act (for him).  He had been with one performer for quite a while but took some time off from touring to take care of business at home and to finalize the purchase of his house.

So I got to spend time with my grandson on my own. We had a great time playing games, cooking and just hanging out.  He discovered YouTube on my tablet and spent time watching these silly toy infomercials.  Then we found movie clips and had a great time watching those.  We also spent time playing a version of Frisbee/soccer/volleyball where he made up the rules as we went along.  It was great until we got the Frisbee caught in the tree in the front yard. 

Sunday morning cooking was great, we made breakfast.

We also tried flying a kite, that did not work because there was no wind that day.  So he ran around the yard trying to make the kite fly.

It was fun to spend time with him, just the two of us.  Of course we also had to hit the grocery store because he had a "list" of things he wanted. 

So I am adjusting to a new level of activity in my life between work and family.  It is a great thing, I have hit over 10,000 steps most days now. 

So life moves on.  My grandson started pre-k last week.  He was so excited to be starting school.  I am settling into my job and don't experience panic every time someone asks me something.  We will both move on to the new adventures in our lives. 

We also have our memories of time together.  Those  are priceless.

Just toss me in the deep end of the pool

This week I started my new job.  It is totally different from what I have done for the last four years.  I am at the same employer but now I am in the facilities operations area, not in anything to do with academics.  It was a switch I wanted and looked forward to happening.  I am working for the same employer so I understand the systems, the people and the culture.

That is where it ends.  There have been a steady stream of people stopping by my door to say hello and then to give me their opinion about how things are working in my new area.  I have had suggestions about staff and how they are working (some well, some not so well).  One person has turned in their resignation this week and another is on an extended medical leave. 

I told my boss I have a running list of items I need to review with him and find out how he wants me to work with him and the department I supervise.  Yikes, this is fun and exhilarating and scary and overwhelming. 

I know I am up to the task and soon I will find my "new normal" but right now I am just treading water as I am working my way around the deep end of pool.  It will get better and soon I will feel like I know what I am doing. 

Wish me luck.  How have you managed taking on the tasks of a new job?  Do you have any tips for me? 

Our Pack has lost a member

This week ended with the loss of a member of our pack.  The Princess, who had been with us over 16 years, came to the end of her life.  My husband and I made the painful decision to have her euthanized.  She had a long, wonderful life but in the last few weeks had gone downhill quickly. 

The Princess was an exceptional dog.  She was not easy, being part chow and part lab, she had the best and the worst attributes of both breeds.  She was very strong willed and wanted things her way.  Variations in her schedule were not handled well.  Yet she took her job as the head of security for our house very seriously.  No one, either human or animal, crossed our yard without her knowing about it and letting us know that our perimeters had been breached.

She did tolerate grand dog and The Beagle, our latest pack addition.

The Princess allowed hockey players who lived with us for many years to be part of her pack.  She loved the snow and I would often take her for long walks on winter afternoons.  She would bury her head in the snow and then jump out of it with her face all covered with the icy stuff.

I will miss her so much.  She was my faithful companion and, like many chows, picked me as her favorite person.  She would tolerate my husband (he said she considered him "better than nothing").
I know we made the right choice, allowing her to leave us in a way that was painless and peaceful.

Sleep well my Princess.  I know you crossed the Rainbow Bridge yesterday.  I will see you when it is my time to make the same journey.   

A Walk of Faith - Update

Several weeks ago I posted about the fact my position at my employer was being eliminated at the end of May.  The notice of my job disappearing was frightening and threw me totally off course.  I had everything planned for the next few years but life sent me elsewhere.

So I wrote about my journey to a new job as a walk of faith.  It is so hard to rest in God's promises that He has a plan and will take care of us.  I had to remind myself daily that this transition was in God's hands.  I did many things that took me out of my comfort zone as part of this transition.  I talked to friends and co-workers.  I asked for help and guidance from others.  There was lots of prayer, both on my part and from a group of prayer warriors who offered to help me.

It was starting to look pretty bleak, I had done all the right things and had applied and interviewed for several positions, both with my current employer and with others.  My husband was my rock and we planned how we would handle things if I did not get a job.  It included a call to our son saying, "If this does not work out we will sell everything and move in with you!"  He welcomed us and and told us that would not totally suck if it happened.

In my prayers this week I told God that no matter what happened I knew He had a plan and it was perfect.  On Wednesday I got a call that changed my life.  I was offered another position at the employer where I work.  It is a total change from what I have been doing yet not really that different from my previous position.

Here is how God works, at least from my perspective.  The position I was offered was originally opened and advertised.   I had thought about applying for it but doubted my qualifications.   I was asked to be on the interview committee for the first posting of this position.  After the interviews there was a candidate who seemed perfect for the position.  He was offered the job and accepted.  I told the supervisor that I had thought about applying for the position but did not.  Then a few weeks later the supervisor contacted me and told me that the candidate had withdrawn his acceptance of the position.  How often does that happen?  I applied for the position as soon as it was re-posted.  That is the position I was offered this week.  How can I doubt that this was not the working of God when a job I wanted was offered to someone else and then it ended up being offered to me. 

So where I was expecting an ending now I am looking forward to a new beginning.  I will be changing departments and supervisors.  This looks so exciting for me and as always God's plan is perfect.

Trust that all things will work out for the best.  God is truly good.