Enter... Spring

Otherwise known as... Winter is Over

Despite best intentions, I have not been at the keyboard in some time.

I can blame the bit of forced writing in the form of a fifty-page paper while completing my Specialist's degree.

I can blame feeling tender from so much change in my life in 2015.  (The Year of Change.)

I can blame nerves.  It's hard to put thoughts out there for public consumption.

There is no need for blame.

Today is the first day of a new season.  Spring.  Spring is when the prettiest trees bloom in vibrant pastels.  The birds seem to chirp a bit louder.  The grass gets a bit greener after the dull brown of winter.  It's a great time for new beginnings.

In 2015 I left My Ever-Growing School District for the Ginormous School District North of My Ever-Growing School District.  I got a job as a school counselor in yet another small town, and purchased a condo on a golf course.  I bought my first set of grown-up living room furniture, and closed in October.  I decorated with "retreat" being the description I continually returned to.  Browns, blues, with a splash of red here and there.  I became a real American with my first television in November.  December brought a new car, and my outward transformation was complete.

I returned to running, and focused on acclimating to all the change.

Change is good.

The pace of my adopted hometown is slower.  The driving is easier, the kindness evident.  I really love this place.  I love living five minutes from work.  I love the rolling hills.  (Yes, I found a town in Florida with hills.)  I love the vegetable stands.  I love my students.  Mostly, though, I love the space that this town has created in my life.  It has given me great perspective to look back and reflect on choices made that led me here.  It has given me the opportunity to retire my inner overachiever.  That, for me, is probably the best gift of all.

Each day I return to my condo, grateful for this lovely home that I share with my darling cat, Aiko-chan.  I promised myself when I moved that although I love my job, it would no longer consume my life.  I do not check email outside of work hours.  I only bring work home when absolutely necessary.  I continue to be conscientious, and remain a staunch advocate for the school counseling profession, but I recognize that I allowed work to fill a void.

I decided to let life fill my days.  Life is good.

After returning home from a fun Christmas holiday with my extended family in Georgia, I enlisted the aid of Match.com to assist in my project for 2016: The Year of Love and Magic.  (My friend Scott prefers the Year of Jen.  I digress.)

The Year of Love and Magic has not disappointed.  I have love, and I have magic, and most of all, I have joy.  People say that you have to find peace and happiness within yourself before you can find it with another person.  Truth.

This morning I woke up, disappointed that it was raining.  I had wanted to get a good run around my neighborhood in before spending the day with my Love.  It took a few minutes, but I reframed that disappointment.  I made coffee, did a little light housekeeping, and took to writing.  Because it is the season for new beginnings and great beauty.  Winter is over.  Enter... Spring.