Taking stock

I've been musing on several things since Troy's and Nancy's online channeling sessions on Sunday. I asked Nancy about my "platform" for the coming year. For those of you who aren't familiar with that term, according to Michael, each year around May we choose a sort of "theme" or focus for our experiences for the next 12 months. One of Troy's questioners asked for an "energy" report for June, with the reply that we are currently in a very amorphous kind of period, which gives us a unique opportunity to create (perhaps on a large scale) big changes for ourselves.

Nancy gave my platform as "Perseverence." I can't really validate that at all, because Perseverence is also my Mode (how I achieve my "Goal" - which is Growth) in terms of my overleaves. Perseverence is my "modus operandi" in just about every area of my life, especially in areas which are slow to change, or which are fraught with set backs, such as health and career issues.

We are reeling at the library lately with a situation which is a perfect example of Troy's amorphous energy. The next several months will be an experiment in library management - our relatively new branch manager has now been asked to take on a third library in the system, which spreads her very thin. And it opens up the question of what will be done with the two benefitted positions that are going unfilled. At Waconia it has meant that the remaining librarians are spending more time alone at the public reference desk. Now there is another gap in staffing. Will the library give some of those hours (and benefits!) to the existing part time librarians (like me!) or will they hire more part time people? It is an uneasy situation. Those of us who are part time all want more hours and benefits. There are three of us pushing hard for it. I have no health insurance. Other county offices are not staffed routinely with part time people. It makes us at the library (with our Master's degrees) feel somehow marginalized in this (to us!) misguided priority of saving money over creating a staffing model that would build morale and loyalty and better customer service. But this is a pattern that is repeated in libraries all across the country. The professional magazines are full of articles bemoaning the lack of full time jobs for new library school graduates. How can they hope to build a future for themselves when even longtime librarians are still struggling in part time positions? And as full time librarians retire, those jobs are continuing to be "down-sized" in the face of widespread economic shortages and the chronic underfunding of libraries. Off my soap box now - if Perseverance is what it takes to get more hours and benefits, I have done all I can do to make my interests and desires known, and now it is up to the powers that be.

So what else would I like to create over the next year? Getting settled in my new home is going to take some time. As I unpack I am sorting through things and asking myself "do I really want/ need this and where is it going to go?" I am eager to capitalize on the feeling of having more space, and I don't want to see it as cluttered as my old apartment was. This will undoubtedly be a long-term project. I have never been good at letting go of "stuff", but it is easier now while I am in the process of creating the new space.

Gardening has all kinds of spiritual metaphors associated with it. Planting seeds, growing things, an outlet for creativity and the urge to nurture life, being attuned with the natural world. It is therapeutic to dig in the dirt, and it fosters contemplation and feeling connected to all of life, God, the Universe. It is a marvelous spiritual tool, and one I will be taking full advantage of in the months ahead.

I have spoken in the last post about the need to create a new sense of "community" for myself. I suppose this is true of any move to a new home, but I wasn't really expecting it with a move of only 35 miles. While I do crave a great deal of solitude and live a mostly contemplative life - surprise! - there is a sense of something "missing" yet, and that is a feeling of community. Now that I have the space to entertain friends, the desire to build new relationships (and maintain old ones) is growing. I have been inviting people to come out here, but I am realizing that for those in the city it will be an occasional thing. Back in Iowa City I used to give dinner parties. I think once I get more settled I may revive that practice. Also the annual medieval party at Halloween..... I may explore going to the country church down the road this summer. Or join a book club group in Waconia. Or find some musicians to play with and start a chamber music group. Or join a bridge group. Or all of the above......

In terms of inner work, I am currently reading The Pleiadian Workbook by Amorah Quan Yin. While I suspend my belief in actual alien contact - it all begins to sound ridiculous after a while - I continue to wonder about my own experience some years back. What she describes of her own experience is similar enough to mine, that I can't just dismiss it either. I guess I just don't need to know the "truth" about the source of it in order to find the energy work useful. Along with doing more energy/ visualization work, and exploring some of these techniques, I would like to get back into doing yoga regularly. I have let myself get much too out of shape.

It is looking like a year full of possibilities! I am loving the feeling of being able to create something instead of being swept along by circumstances. There has definitely been a more expansive shift over the last few years. I don't think it is just me that has changed. I have simply worked hard (persevered!) to be able to take advantage of these opportunities/ energies now that they have (finally!) come along.