Healthy At Sixty: ReVitalizing Life or Reflections on Today.

Revitalizing Life.___ or Reflections on Today

A daily process grounded in  people, places, and things that challenge, provide joy, and keep one grounded.  Sharing experiences enables one to grow in humility and pride. Creativity is a great gift. Finding passion is looking at what was there before the world took over and funneling it into events. People are important. Love them hard.'

Loss

My cat of 17.5 who lived with me in two states, through nine moves, and seven job increases, died in November and it was a devastating blow. I have had to relearn everything and bless his little heart, I never realized until he was gone how much he held me up.

Job Change

After working for three years in a job I loved, I was restructured out. It was political. It was also not handled well by my supervisor who emailed me to let me know I was not being re hired. It was not due to performance thank goodness, but definitely a blow no less.

Land On Feet   

I landed on my feet and although I feel like I am a bit underemployed at the moment, I work for a nice place and am treated nicely. I am growing and learning to let go of "busyness" and "taking on extra work". In the process, I am re connecting with things that give me joy that have been buried for the last twenty years or so when I was career climbing.

Books

Commuting two plus hours a day provides a lot of time for listening to books on tape:

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine-*****

                                                                         Where the Crawdads Sing-*****











Becoming Michelle Obama ****


Before We Were Yours *********Excellent

The Reckoning****

The Wife*****




Everything We Keep***

The Stranger Beside Me (Ted Bundy)****


A Serial Killers Daughter*** (BTK Killer)

And Work Related

Leadership In Turbulent Times- Doris Kearns Goodwin

Mission: To Create Heaven on Earth... Kindness. Positive Thinking...Empowerment.. Good Intentions...Fun... 

💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥

I will always work for a place where I can combine my creativity and organizational skills to support equity and education. My main goal, "To create heaven on earth for other people" has always been my guide. II am not particularly religious, grew up Lutheran and have a pretty wide spiritual focus, but I do know the power of positive thinking and kindness. And I believe we have a responsibility to reach out to others and to ensure that children have equal opportunities for education. In the process, honest conversations have to be had and demeanor is key. Kindness and good intent cause no harm even in the tough times. 

Loyalty and Boundaries

Views on loyalty change. Being loyal to a fault, to job, duty, and family is ok with boundaries..  My attitude on loyalty changed a bit after the job situation.  I was loyal. I held things together during transition and I made sure I was on target no matter what. I was ok with the restructuring, I was ready to move on anyway, I was not ok with the way I received the message. I felt disrespected, marginalized, and objectified. The guy never really cared for me much anyway, and I got on his bad side when I had to supervise his girlfriend, but nonetheless, I was loyal and professional and tried to approach all with integrity.'

I learned that loyalty, being accessible and willing, and taking on more is not always valued. Not a pity party, just a lesson in self-respect. I've moved on but I am still healing in losing people I cared about so much

Boundaries are important... overstep and anger appears.

Remember the Greased Pig Theory... Fight with a greased pig and the pig gets away and you get dirty

Mom

I am lucky to still have my mom. I know every day is a gift and I keep in contact.

Time 

We have time.  We can choose to balance work and fun and have the wisdom to support others without needing a lot of accolades. The cost of living in the Bay Area is very high. There is a nagging conflict with the need to rent versus buy, but the hand off is the flexibility of being able to explore new places. There is value in change and keeping abreast of new trends, keeping active, and growing intellectually and spiritually. Age is a number. There is an art to aging gracefully while retaining youthfulness.

• Staying healthy
• Keeping in touch
• Having a safety net
• Looking every day for new adventures.
• Not taking things too seriously. 

Wicked and Keep Loved Ones Close

My family and I went to see Wicked at Pantages in LA a few weeks ago. One of my bucket list dreams and oh so much fun. I have no children myself so I enjoy the time I get to spend with my adult niece and nephew as well as their parents. I get to be the crazy aunt and that is fun. They keep my heart happy and I love the spirit of youth. 

Mentoring

I wrote my dissertation on female school superintendents and although I am not there yet, I enjoy seeing young women (and men too) but especially young women, grow in their careers. I love to support from the side and my greatest joy is seeing students at the college level who decide to go into education. I like to mentor, try to do so without control, and believe that being available and following up are the keys to supporting others. I learned long ago in my career as an educational administrator at the district and school site level how to direct and command and can bottom line when necessary, but the greatest joy is being able to lead by example and be accessible and putting systems in place.

Grief 

I am beginning to find new ways to connect. 

• Facilitate a support group one meeting a week to help myself and others keep boundaries.
• Intermittently fast to keep healthy and confident
• Set a ten year goal plan.. flexible yet focused.

Identify Your Own Barriers to Progress... Don't Build a Wall                                                                                            

• Initiative overload
• Rent vs own mindset.
• Not wanting to leave the Bay Area because I am having fun. 
• Questioning the utilization of  potential and education and preparation to grow. 
• Needing a challenge and balancing this growth and challenge with a need to have flexibility and space.
• Planning, Planning.. Planning and not acting.
• Overthinking.
• Guilt over not doing enough.

Looking Forward... Find Your Tribe

• Oscar movies.... See them all! 
• Travel home this summer
• Theater, Opera (my new focus), and Pilates (my other new focus).. find a passion.
• Fast for energy
• Keep the soul open through journaling and service. 
• Download lots of good music for the commute
• Limit time spent on Facebook.  
• Time spent with family and friends.
• Flexibility to be transient and have new adventures.

My New Learning

I have two blogs, this one and one for professional writing. I want to take them live eventually. I need to learn how to market.

Giving Back With Balance

Giving back means being available to others and keeping a boundary of self-preservation.  It is a fine balance. It is true that nice guys maybe don't finish last, but are often taken for granted. Being quiet and going about business, taking on responsibilities when people leave or structures change, and keeping to oneself are not the best skills for today's workplace if one wants to grow.  

It is a balancing act of introversion and work ethic with 21st century skills. 

In the last go around, I did tasks that were required and no one really knew I did them.. Then I was recognized as "expendable". I still have some negative feelings, but in essence, the guy in charge was weak and not too vision minded. I know absence is when presence is appreciated and try not to go down the rabbit hole about it all, but I was really pissed with the way I was treated.  That said, we learn and we forgive and we move on and we still give with eagnerness,,, maybe a bit more caution... but being nice is not a deficit. Being too nice can be. 

Stream of Consciousness  

Stream of consciousness writing is good. 

Being open to strengths and weaknesses and looking for ways to grow keeps one current. .

Not getting caught in a number, which seems to have happened with some birthdays, is not easy.

Yet, destiny is pre determined and keeping youthful helps keep the mission going.

Surround self with a steady stream of people who want to grow. 

February is Fun... It's February

Visit my other blog. On Leadership  for professional musings on leadership, equity, and growth.