Over and Out

Well, I promised a week of blogs, but was felled by the flu on Christmas Eve and lost a week of my life.  The fog lifted the day before the lovely birthday party Hannah and David arranged for me Friday.  Thank you to all the greetings from friends far and wide.  I now am well and truly 60 years old.

As I promised, this is my last blog.  As I read through the site, it seems that I have touched on the main themes of my life in this year of preparing for the big 6-0:

1. I've examined my motivation for trying my hand at a Development career, and how to adjust to being an administrator instead of a teacher.  Result: parents are more informed and engaged at Highroad, our name is getting out into the community, and our enrollment numbers are up significantly.  I've learned to strike a life-work balance with Dave as my husband and my boss with many eyes watching.  I'm learning to enjoy my days off and be more strategic with my days on.  I still feel like a rank amateur most of the time and make a significant number of mistakes every week - when does that stop?
2. I've had a chance to talk about my family.  I love them so much it makes me ache, from my brothers and their families down to our youngest grandchild, the impish 5 yr. old Natsuki.  The delight in seeing each one find their place in this world is a salve to the pain in my heart from wishing we were together all the time.
3. I've touched on the topics of mentoring and needing a mentor - lots of threads to pick up here.

In recent days, I feel like the presence of God has been particularly close and clear.  I am assured that everything is OK, that things are working out just fine.  I feel strongly that there are opportunities waiting for me to discover - not that they will come to me;  more that I will come to them as I keep on my journey.

In days to come, I hope to blog again under a different banner.  I'd like to examine themes of friendship, role modeling and making the most of our time, energy and creativity.  But for now, dear readers, I'm signing off for a season.  Thank you for all your encouraging words.