Transitioning

I am getting excited. A month left of teaching and then I am reinventing my entire life,  creating my own personal paradise where I am surrounded by what and whom I love, while doing what I love. It seems very simple to me. So simple, that is seems absurd.

Teaching has been a very difficult career which has involved the past 25+ years of my life. Raising two babies alone for the most part, while getting my bachelors, and then working full time while getting my  masters.  Working with at-risk and difficult teens while raising my own of the same ilk. Then illnesses here and with family. A few years of making great money but at the price of high stress.

I have my moments of self doubt. Cruise thru my Facebook and you will see posts that dangle fear and doubt like dirty clothes on a line. But I am bathed in the confidence and hopeful words of friends and colleagues that it will all come together, and I will have enough.

I have taken preventative measures. Refinanced my house to lower payments, made of list of what I have to cut. Put more time into the garden which will help sustain me. Get organized. Have faith. Take notes.

And soon, I will be freed, like the wild bird from the cage. And somehow,the world around me, will sustain me.

 L'chaim!

 

GREAT video

The late Alan Watts made this three minute video.  I have been showing it in my classes.

Whenever I get nervous about leaving my secure job in a few months, I just pop this on, and I am encouraged, inspired and KNOW all will be ok.

Three minutes. Three powerful minutes.  This video may have started getting the ball in motion.  I can't put my finger on the definitive moment that the seed was planted, but this was certainly part of it.

THE LEAP

I've had a rough school year.

New schedule/new students/new rules that have made the amount of stress and work at my job as a teacher unbearable.

Months of sciatic and back pain while having to be on my feet 6-8 hours a day teaching.Months of PT, acupuncture, doctors. Bottles of ibuprofen.  Tests. Results? Herniated disc OR a cyst on the lower spine. Arthritis of the spine due to age.Inflammation of the coccyx.

Then I got the horrid eye/sinus infection that laid me flat for 10 days.

So I had a lot of time to think.

I was miserable. My health was suffering on many levels. My art was suffering.
My soul was being smothered.

Then... I had an epiphany.

I was done with my career. After 21 years of teaching in a school for special needs children, and difficult circumstances, I was toast.  I knew at that moment I could not go back.  I was far from the wonder retirement that veteran teachers of 30 years make. If I left now, I took a 50% cut in retirement from those who make it to 30 years and 62 years of age.  But I did not care.

I put in my resignation letter the day I returned back from my sick leave. My boss's mouth hung open. My peers were in shock. Some cried. The kids found out and I've been circled with teens who whine "YOU CANT LEAVE TILL I GRADUATE. "

Though I have had my moments of wondering if I can make enough money on my art and free lance teaching work to pay my bills, I am forging ahead. I have been preparing for this journey for a while now, and it has arrived.

Some call me brave. Some foolish. But most have been encouraging and joyful.

So come join me in my adventure of making a career change, of shaking up my world in the quest of doing what I love and practicing the law of attraction, mindfulness, and adventure. I think it's going to be a great one, and I am thrilled to be able to share my mistakes, my successes, and most of all, my joy with you all!

Patti OOOOOOOOO