Sunday, January 3, 2010

Onward! Launch Time has Arrived

Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they're supposed to help you discover who you are.

Bernice Johnson Reagon


I'm lolling about in the confines of a very warm bed. My husband awoke me hours ago with a cup of coffee, yet it has begun to rain and the drops on the tin roof provide a rhythm that makes being under the covers much too inviting. Besides, getting up means all that Christmas mess needs my assistance to attain its resting place for another year. Also the piles of paperwork hidden in vast recesses from visiting company's view need pulling out for assessment of any urgency long put off. Laundry, grocery shopping, life brought up to date to begin the new year, awaits me.

Before I head into that routine however, I require a more defined reminder of my desired accomplishments for this year - the writing I want to pursue, the perfect resume I want to design for that jobhunt, the time with my youngest son I want to treasure before he leaves to begin his very own life next fall.

Seems overwhelming as I list these items, and I'm tempted to put away the pages of my journal and close the cover of my laptop. Snuggling under the covers for one more nap sounds most inviting. But instead I stick with it for what the practice of writing brings me. By putting my fears, my needs, my work into tangible words, I leave not only a plan on the page, but some of the anxiety as well.

By getting it down, the multitude of ideas and tasks floating like electrons and protons and neutrons around my brain have an opportunity to slow and settle, making then easier to distribute into a plan. The protons line up with the electrons to offer cause and effect. The neutrons float freely to be plucked as needed for reminders as to why any of this is done at all. For me, the tightening of the circular option gives me pause to prepare for the forward movement. A chance to take that needed breath and say, "Oh well," before pushing on into the subjective unknown of forward movement. Hopefully, I take some form of directions with me.

The new year begins. With weddings, graduations, empty nests, uncertainty before me, this will be a year filled with new roads. Possibly many unpaved and filled with ruts to dodge. I hope all my previous map reading helps me stay on a road - most of the time. Or else have the means to handle the detours and diversions with a steady heart and patient mind.

Onward!

34 comments:

  1. ". . . yet it has begun to rain and the drops on the tin roof provide a rhythm that makes being under the covers much too inviting."

    Lovely.

    Looking ahead at an entire year is a little overwhelming, isn't it? Makes me want to stay under the covers too, except that I have way to much to do on my last Sunday before returning to work that I've been putting off. Staying busy and focused on the present is what keeps me sane.

    Enjoyed seeing you very much this week. Let's do it again soon, dear friend.

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  2. Oh yes, I finally am able to visit....didn't do anything different it just opened for me. So good to be here.
    Reading your post made me want to take a nap....you sounded so cosy. Oh yes Julie the new year will bring about many changes but nothing you will not be able to manage....challenges are nothing if not exciting, so enjoy each new day and embrace what it brings forth my friend.......:-) Hugs

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  3. Oh, I know what you mean!

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  4. ..."the means to handle the detours and diversions with a steady heart and patient mind." That is my favorite sentence of the new year!

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  5. Every day is a new launch day. Sleep today. There will be tomorrow. And then grab it by the ba**s!
    xo
    erin

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  6. I'm fully confident in your ability to forge a perfect path for your life this year. One that's full of adventure and a nap or two along the way. I look forward to traveling with you as we find our writer selves.

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  7. Yes. Uh-huh. I'm with you. This was beautifully written, btw.
    Onward, indeed!!

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  8. Yep, I need to get my connections snapping again too. I have watched Backyardigans so much with my grandson that I'm replaying their theme song over and over in my mind. But first maybe just one more tiny little nap, just to get me going..

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  9. Lovely piece of writing, Julie, as well as being a thoughtful message to carry with me. There is not so much resolve, as intent in your words. May it stay with you.

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  10. Wonderful post. Hope you will have a great year filled with love, happiness and lots of writing...

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  11. Oh come on, it won't hurt to order one more cup of coffee from the waiter, er, I mean sweetly ask your husband if he might bring you another, and snuggle down for another 15 or 20 minutes. Can you hear that? The soft, warm down is calling your name and telling you it's okay to lie in bed while you peer across the room and decide what to wear...

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  12. Can relate to juggling "the designing of the perfect resume for that jobhunt, and the time with my youngest son I want to treasure before he leaves to begin his very own life next fall."

    And wanting very much to loll about under my own warm covers for a little longer.

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  13. You sound well-equipped to face the new year. But it sounds very tempting snuggling down again - if your weather is anything like as cold as ours then bed is almost the only place to keep warm. Happy new year.

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  14. Cheers to Onward and Self discovery!

    Have a Happy New Year!!

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  15. This writing was beautiful. I know you'll navigate the year just right.

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  16. OK. So I read the title as "lunch time has arrived" and was fairly excited. I do love me some food.
    However, as always, your post did not disappoint. It's thrilling and scary to look ahead.

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  17. Though it seems scary, I am excited for the challenges awaiting you and the family in 2010. It will certainly lead to good blog reading for us visitors.

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  18. Ah, the feeling of warmth under cover as the rain provides a soft and steady rhythm. You captured the state of pre-launch beautifully. Carry on!

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  19. Very well stated. I suspect you'll do just fine though.

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  20. This year is kind of scary for me because I'm being forced out of my comfort zone. It's nice to come here and know I'm not alone. Best wishes this year!

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  21. You are so lucky that you can stay in bed, under the covers. That's exactly where I wish I was, but I don't have that luxury. I haven't taken a nap since 2001!! Enjoy!

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  22. Midlife...oh your tin roof comment took me back to the first house I ever bought for my daughters and myself. My room was the add on family room and I converted it to my bedroom. The entire back wall was 20 feet of sliding doors looking out to my backyard full of fruit trees and rosebushes...the ceiling was flat with pine wood....the sound it made when it rain was straight from heaven! I worked back then, so it was a real challenge to pull myself out of my coziness and drudge off in the rain to a stressful job I had to keep to support my girls....

    You write beautifully and I am going to enjoy sitting in the passenger seat of your ride...safe travels....

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  23. Rain on the tin roof took me back to our honeymoon in Antigua. What seems like a long time ago now but the years have flown by.

    A Happy New Year to you and your family!

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  24. I've not been able to think about the new year yet ....oh, I just want to be under the covers, too -- warm and dry and sleepy *smiling*

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  26. I agree: writing it out; making the plan...gets rid of much of the anxiety. Unfortunately, sometimes I want to write about people who read my blog (such as my mother), and I feel inhibited. I end up stomping around and muttering instead, which isn't nearly as therapeutic.

    I've been a negligent blog reader of late; and I miss you when I fail.

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  27. I love that Reagon quote.

    Good luck on the upcoming year. Sounds like it's going to be a busy one!

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  28. Well, you'll have all of us for company along the way...and we'll laugh together, and cry together...and you will point the way!!! Looking forward to seeing all the exciting things this year will hold for you...I think with an empty nest come fall that you'll be embarking on some big adventures!!! ~Janine XO

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  29. Good luck in the new year. I share your travels from in front of my warm fire. !

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  30. Your words made me want to crawl back into bed which is where I should be heading soon anyway but I would have felt the same in the middle of the afternoon. Beautifully said.

    I spent the weekend begrudgingly putting away my Christmas decorations. I don't know what lies ahead in 2010 but I do know that next year I'm taking down Christmas when people are around to help. It's so dreadful to do alone.

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