Forgive me, Readers, for I have deserted my post (no pun intended!).
My last post here was in February–I missed an entire season of blogging (and this site’s 11th birthday on March 16).
Despite my frequent and prolonged absences from this space, I still identify as a blogger. I’ve been struggling with frequent feelings of disconnection and unsettledness. I’m pretty sure one of the causes is that my actions and identity haven’t exactly been in sync.
- Identifying the problem is a necessary first step toward solving it. And hey–this is actually a problem I can solve, all by myself!
There are, of course, other factors involved here. I think we can identify disconnection, disillusionment, frustration and exhaustion as common symptoms of American life in 2018. It’s more important than ever to know what’s going on in the world. And it’s more tempting than ever to burrow under the covers.
Are you struggling to calibrate what you need to know about the Big Things with what you need to know to deal with your own life every day? I know I am.
Big Little Things
I’m not here to talk about Big Things today, though. I just want to recap some of the not-so-big things that have been claiming my attention since I was last here.
- Family Life: Technically speaking, we have no “children” anymore–the youngest turned 18 in December. He’s now a high-school graduate (with honors :-)) and will be starting university at Cal State Northridge in the fall.
And so now it seems the parents are taking center stage–our parents, I mean. My father is now 89 and has had several falls–fortunately, without major damages–during the last couple of years. He continues to live on his own but requires a lot of careful watching. Fortunately, he lives in the same town as my sister and me, so that’s doable. Meanwhile, we’re preparing to move Paul’s mother into a nearby assisted-living community nearby. It’s a big shift–a much smaller space more than 100 miles from the community she’s lived in for over 25 years–and it’s been a process preparing her to make it.
And for you Winchester fans–the dog is fine.
- Work Life: My current role at work is an amplified version of my former role as Controller, incorporating some of the responsibilities I had last year as (acting) CFO. That’s partly because we still haven’t hired a full-time CFO, six months after I stepped down and out part-time-interim CFO came on board. I don’t know if I’m feeling less work stress than I did at this time last year, but it feels differently stressful, if that makes sense. (And having given up the acting-CFO pay when I stepped down, there’s literally less compensation for the stress.)
And after 15 years with this agency, the 80-mile daily round-trip communt is growing increasingly tiresome. At least it still offers prime audiobook and podcast time!
- “Life” Life: There’s not so much to report on other fronts, and I’ll get to what there is in another post (or maybe even two!). I have been reading, seeing movies, and watching some good TV. This isn’t looking like much of a travel year.
