Year of the Rabbit Report

2011 was good to me: 4 little vacations, 3 paying jobs, 2 children healthful, spirited and ever-growing, 1 better me.

I make a lot of plans.  One of my jobs is entirely about making plans for other people, field trips specifically.  This renders most of my work candidacy for fun, but by the time 2011 started, the general rhythm of life was rough and really rather buried under the inefficiency and demand of working two jobs, keeping two kids in balance, and nowhere did I really have my Self penciled into any schedule.  These were things that I conceptually realized, but what to do with this knowledge?  Through great fortune, power of suggestion and generosity, I rediscovered Vacation. 

First there was Boston between snowstorms - the great catalyst

If you have known me for any length of time, wanderlust was my mental M.O. in youth, and it was even in
practice for some golden periods of time.  But kids happen, and missed opportunities happen, and life throws unexpected challenges in the path.

followed by the tropical gift of the Bahamas -

Self vacations of most any kind, for me, disappeared. 

LA summer (complete with mountain anemones) for the lure of a wedding and good company

  But I collected four of these gems this calendar year, nearly aligned with the seasons, and they frame the real beauty of the spirit the Rabbit gave as the Dragon surfaces for a new year in time.As for those jobs, they keep me afloat and entertained, quite often.  I am fortunate to work with people, constantly, and to make a daily difference in people's lives. But there is a point at which one works her rear off and wants to be able to do more than pay the bills each month.  A friend entrusted me to peddle her wares at the local artisan's market this summer, rounding up sources of income to three during summer's paycheck drought.  I continue looking for the Next Phase of work as I count my blessings for the work that I have and do....and keep this perspective alongside the desire for work/life time efficiency and a financial future.
And children.  They do grow.  The days escalate into weeks and years and suddenly my kids see photos of their parents as kids and say, "I  used to look like that!"  Parents have the trickiest task of all, after nurturing and feeding and watering and exposing our kids to all kinds of basic goodness; we must give time and space and the art of invisible opportunity so the kids themselves can bloom and grow.  Not forgetting, of course, we need these things too.  I have two of these charges.  The script for each is different, the scene set even more so.  We're hard-pressed to settle on much of any activity that we all really enjoy together anymore; even in sleep our preferred hours vary.  Yet we muddle along and shine in our own ways that surely have impending sync.
Which circles the year back to me. 

...& finally winter's rest and coastal hegemony at Long Beach, WA

  I love this region, this city, even this apartment with no yard and the grief to stay in it for lack of monetary mobility to improve that.  I got a few tricks up my sleeve in the Rabbit's year, and without changing much environment or daily rhythm I did regain some of me.  Days are absolutely as full as ever, yet I now sit down in my own house at least once daily. And that, to subsidize vacations, brought goodness to me.

first published January 2012