Patti Gibbons Art

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.

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 fr...