The Journey Continues

In September of 2016 I accepted an offer that propelled me into traveling new paths.  It began a journey of personal and spiritual growth as well as giving me a chance to mentally and emotionally regroup and restart.  It's been delightful.  

After an initial and intentional Sabbatical, I accepted an offer to teach at Remington College.  So many stories!  I suppose all teachers have a collection of such stories.  Sometimes tear jerking, and sometimes joyful, each story is filled with meaning and purpose.  

Remington students are an amazing group of people. Many are struggling with poverty. Some are recovering from unfortunate choices or unexpected circumstances.  All are reaching for those famous bootstraps and pulling up with all the strength they can muster.  They've come to a career college and they're working to pass their certification exam, graduate, and begin their new careers.  Every month there's a day of joy as senior students walk out of room 15 celebrating the success of passing that final all important certification exam. I feel honored to have shared in that joy. 

Alas, Remington is no longer offering General Education courses on the campus where I teach.  My hours have been drastically reduced and my search for a dream job necessarily must begin again.  

My resume and my Linkedin profile are updated with my most recent experiences.  Please feel free to share links to anyone who may need an employee with my skills.  I'm dependable.  I probably work harder than I should.  I'm a good hiring decision.  

Books - Improv - Creativity - Entrepreneurs - Yoga - Family 

I wish everyone could have the opportunity to experience a paid sabbatical as I have experienced over the past few months. Never before have I had the luxury to indulge so deeply in leisure and personal growth. 

Feeling energized, poised, and ready, I’ve started to search for a new, interesting and challenging career opportunity.  While I'm waiting for that to come to fruition, I think I'll share some of what I've enjoyed. 

Books:

Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life - This is for anyone who has moved past preparing (going to school, technical training, living with parents, etc) into adult life and is wanting to make the most of their life.  Based on Jungian principles, it is deep, but also enlightening. I've heard the author, James Hollis, Ph.D, speak several times. Each time I thought to myself that I should buy this book.  I finally did and I wish I had bought it sooner.

Into the Magic Shop - This is an easy and fun read packed with a surprising amount of practical life enhancing practises.  A neuroscientist, James R. Doty, MD, tells the story of how he started in an impoverished dysfunctional family and journeyed to become a renowned neurosurgeon.  Woven through his story are his love for magic and the teachings from a stranger met in a magic shop.  Teachings that carried him through all the adversities life brought to him. 

Finding Your Own North Star - This book is full of exercises developed by the author, Martha Beck, to assist those who feel that they are astray from their best life path.  Some of the case studies are expressed a bit irreverently, but the direct style probably makes the lessons being taught more clear and evident.  

The Shack - This is the book behind the recent movie of the same name.  It is a novel based on the real life experiences of the author, Wm. Paul Young.  It is a tender look at life and death and how we sometimes diminish our perceptions of God with our traditional and stereotyped mind set. As the parent of a deceased child, I found this book moving, touching, frightening and healing all at the same time. 

Beyond Biocentrism: Rethinking Time, Space, Consciousness, and the Illusion of Death - I'm intrigued by both science and religion.  The practical and the mystic.  The physical and the metaphysical.  This book does an outstanding job of bringing together what we can learn from science and how that does/doesn't align with notions about spirituality.  The book provides clear and understandable descriptions of quantum phenomenon.  If you want to "get it" at a new level, this is the book.  Author Robert Lanza, MD with Bob Berman. 

Light on Life - This book came to me as I studied to become a Certified Yoga Teacher. I love how various spiritual teachings tend to all align to the same root concepts.  This book details the philosophical teachings of Yoga.  If you want to understand Yoga at at deeper level than just physical stretching and balancing, I recommend this book.  Author B.K.S. Iyengar. 

Improv

A wise person suggested that I take improv classes to help me better understand and deal with fear.  I'm so very glad.  I took classes at Dallas Comedy House.  The teachers there are excellent.  The others in my class were a delight to get to know.  Everyone should give it a try. It isn't as scary as it sounds.  

Creativity:This adventure is only beginning.  I'm about to spend my next few weeks in a course call Creating with Heart at Studio Arts in Dallas.  The course is based on Julia Cameron's book, The Artist’s Way.  I've already read half the book.  It's full of exercises to connect - or reconnect - to your true creative self. Looking forward to starting classes.  



Entrepreneurs

In the course of contemplating starting my own business, I learned about SCORE. SCORE is a  non-profit organization that offers mentors and courses for anyone interested in becoming an entrepreneur.  The mentoring is free.  The courses are reasonably priced.  You can learn anything from how to start a non-profit, to how to start a consulting business, to how to use bookkeeping software, to numerous other things.  

Yoga

Yoga Teacher Training is certainly the thing to do if you want to teach yoga. Or, maybe, like me, you just want to know what the teachers know in order to deepen your own practice.  Either way, the hard work to complete the course is well worth the effort. Not all Yoga Teacher Training is equal.  I studied with Katherine and Shelly at Yoga Chikitsa in Richardson.  I've also studied some, before that, with the leaders of the Living Yoga Program in Austin. 

Family

Along the way Bev died.  Bev was the best big sister any child could ever imagine.  I wouldn't be who I am if Bev hadn't been there for me. Just a few of the things she taught me:

Only marry for love.  
But, remember:
it's just as easy to love a rich man
as it is to love a poor man. 

Horses lead with their heads.
Ladies let their feet take them where they want to go.
People only know you by what you show them.
So, show them your best.

The rain falls on the just and the unjust. 

Finally, with her death, as we gathered to celebrate her life, she taught me the importance of family.  Those of us who loved her now live in different cities and states.  Even so, when we came together after being long apart, we all knew we belonged.  

Sabbatical

What a gift  - This gift of time!

 

Time to rest

Time to reset

Time to study

Time to create

Time to grow

As the song says, "Worked hard all my life with no help from my friends."  Well, I'll admit that I have had help from friends. Still, I've been working hard since I graduated from high school. The past two months of leisure have been a gift extraordinaire.  

I'm growing restless.  What next? 

Analysis paralysis - When too many choices result in the failure to choose.

The good news is that all ways are the right way. 

Yoga Teacher Training - The Beginning

With the last day of my current iteration of life with Corporate America looming in the distance, every day brings choices about how to transition.  

Transition to what? to where? With Unlimited Possibilities comes a need to sort, prioritize, and ultimately make some choices.  I say I'm building a new life, but what does that mean?  What does that new life look like?  


A choice made: Yoga Teacher Training

• Sixteen week program
• Nine books to read
• Eight weekends of work at the studio I chose  
• Seven projects to complete
• Many homework assignments
• One final test

Then I'll be a Registered Yoga Teacher.  

I'm two two weeks in.  Body soreness comes and goes. The distraction from playing out my final days at my current job is welcome.  The challenges mental and physical are monumental.  

Will I ever actually teach a Yoga class?  I have no idea.  The gain from teacher training far exceeds that single obvious end result.  Teaching a yoga class is only one of many reasons I chose to do this.  I'm building a new life.  YTT is a transition phase from the old to the new. I sincerely hope to build a life that does not include gray cubes.  My hope is that YTT will set me on the right path by bringing to my new life:

• A life with more physical activity - I hope to step away from my current sedentary lifestyle. 
• Solid philosophical footing. 
• Teaching techniques and training that will serve me well not only for teaching yoga, but for whatever else I may teach. 
• Checking off a bucket list item - I've wanted to do this for years.  Too afraid of failure. Too busy.  A million excuses now overcome.  
• New friends - I'm meeting some lovely people. 
• Possibly new contacts and the beginnings of a new network of like minded people who will be a part of my journey to my new life, my new work, my new opportunities and my new experiences.  
• JOY - yeah - this is a joyful thing I'm doing.  
• Growth - I guess all of that is about growth.  Never stop growing.  Never stop learning. 

This Is NOT My Park Bench

Retired is a word.  And, I've discovered that I don't like it.  I've discovered that I'm not capable of thinking of myself as a retired person.  .  

I agreed to a voluntary separation.  Just happens that I've been there long enough to also get some retirement benefits.  But, I am NOT retiring.  Not mentally.  Not bodily. Certainly not financially. 

This is NOT my park bench.

My story. My past, present and future.  My identity.  It's all, always, been about transforming my energies, my ideas, my thoughts and my desires into tangibles.

As a child I would sweep the porch for a nickle.  I would take apart my toys to see what made them work.  Then I would put them together again having both my new understanding and my proper toys.  As a teen I turned dime store remnants into my wardrobe. In college I hung lights and ran the light board in the theater. I modeled. I read aloud.  All to earn extra cash.  

During ten years of marriage I followed my man from town to town as he followed his dreams.  As we moved from town to town, I found a series of new jobs: Seamstress, Clerk, Apartment Complex Assistant Manager, Secretary, Telemarketer, Tupperware Sales, Avon Representative,  Librarian, Order Entry and more.  

Divorce was followed with an urgent effort to build a career.  Thirty years of pushing myself to climb the infamous corporate ladder.  

And now people want to call me retired.  Well, I don't know how to put on the brakes.  I'm ready to rock and roll.  As Mama Cass once sang, I'm ready to make my own kind of music and sing my own special song.  Time to dance as if no one is watching.

Done Deal

The future moves ever nearer. 

Voluntary Separation paperwork signed.

It's like the concept of friends with benefits. It's like saying "I Quit!" but with benefits. Severance, incentive, pension - all make for a softer landing as I exit Corporate America and enter my new life. 

The juxtaposition of excitement and anxiety are noticeable in the way you notice that the hairs on your arm are standing up after rubbing it with a balloon.   Vacillating occasionally to almost any emotion.  Sadness for the impending loss of the things I like about my current job and lifestyle. Fear of failure. Uncertainty of double guessing decisions made. Elation of Unlimited Possibilities. 

My list of Unlimited Possibilities continues to grow.  At the moment I'm excited about auditioning for Project Runway. I've wanted to be on that show since season one.  I want to hang out with Tim Gunn and Nina Garcia.  I want to wallow in creative competition.  And, yes, I want to win.  There's always some old woman on the show, but the old woman never seems to win.  That could be me.  The old lady contestant who finally wins.  

Meanwhile, we all know that intentions must be coupled with actions.  My list of possibilities needs to be translated into desire driven choices coupled with stepping forward into new activities.  Even if I do everything on the list, something has to be first.  While remaining open to shifting priorities, overcoming inertia feels mandatory.  So, actions begin:

• Read
• Converse
• Blog
• Timeline
• Apply
• Interview
• Watch 
• Listen
• Sign up
• Log in
• Say yes more often
• and, maybe most important - remember to breathe and to live in the moment. 

I'm going to Arkansas with friends in October.  Old Marla would have said, no thanks.  New Marla is saying yes to new adventures, new experiences and Unlimited Possibilities. 

Journey Begins

Ten more days to the first fork in the road. Stay with the same corporate position I've held for the past 18 years, or explore unlimited possibilities.  

What would you do?  

Today, I'm leaning toward unlimited possibilities.  

This all started when the company where I work offered me a Voluntary Separation Plan - aka a golden handshake. 

I was about as happy at work as I've ever been over the past 18 years.  Alas, happiness, skills, competency, contributions,etc. were not factored into the offer.  Stay or go.  I have another ten days to finalize my decision.  After that, I'll continue to work to my termination day followed by living off my severance and incentive pay while I find a new way to generate income.   

Best option appears to be:

Given the iffiness of that solution I'm starting to make a list of future career options.  

Any suggestions?

What would you do?