Tuesday, January 1, 2013

My New Year's aspiration

Gosh!  It's been a while.  I have been somewhat - somnolent, I guess, over the past months.  Living at less than full-speed, full-scale, full-consciousness.  Some dragging from health issues, some fuzzy-headedness from sleep issues, some overload from teaching on top of a full-time job.  But also some uncertainty about What I Want To Be When I Grow Up - which, having just turned 62, seems a bit late in the game to worry about.  The question shifts to: what do I want to do after compulsory paid employment?  (Though the end may be years away, given the economy.)

I always wanted my paid employment to coincide with something I was passionate about -- teaching, scholarship, creative writing -- but couldn't muster the inner power to make it happen, or circumstances didn't line up.  Not that many years ago, I thought I could still switch to something more core and creative to make a living, but now I don't expect that.

Not complaining!  I've had a good run of things, good people around me, work that adds some value to the world, no significant financial or health concerns, no tragedies among those close to me.  Yet.

A good friend, whose significant health impairment led to his death a few years ago (muscular dystrophy), quipped that the world is made up of folks with disabilities and folks who are temporarily able-bodied.  He started a second career in higher education when his first globe-trotting career in fashion buying was curtailed from the disease, and he went through his graduate education and his years of being an academic adviser in a wheelchair, gradually losing his abilities (driving was a big loss).  Yet he kept showing up, finding new efficiencies, and purchasing the latest electronic gadgets to stretch his abilities and find new sources of entertainment.

In contrast, I have found myself tempted to shut down, feeling that I'm heading in a downhill direction when I experience physical challenges.  I wonder: who am I now?  I feel like a stranger in my life.

So my challenge today, heading into the new year, is to reconnect with the vital channel of my life, that deep current that has been flowing beneath the trivial and no-so-trivial events, that has shaped my choices as well as the unlooked-for opportunities that come my way.  May I be aligned to it, may I be attuned to it.  May I stop moping around and let it tug me from the shallows, full of sticks and mud, out into clear, open water.



2 comments:

Sultan said...

Good wishes to you and your family. May you find new joy in the everyday.

shoreacres said...

What a lovely post - which just happens to breathe optimism and hope, by the by.

I've been thinking a good bit about Longfellow recently - particularly, his poem that begins, "The tide rises, the tide falls..." I've always loved that poem, although, when I was forced to memorize it in grade school, I had no idea it would become so important to me as a "big person". The rhythm of the words and their simplicity seem to capture the truth of life: whether we're talking about physical health, creative energy, good fortune or bad, the tides truly do rise and fall.

I'm eager for this year. I've decided to treat some of the bad and obnoxious around me (whether the goings-on in D.C. or certain people I know) as if they're invisible. I'm going to do some of the things I've been resolving to do for years (goodbye to those extra pounds. really.)

I have a feeling that deep current you speak of is related to the tides I so love. Here's to a year of rejoicing in their rhythms and flow for both of us!