On Wednesday, The Dog Whisperer (now safely ensconced in her own New Home 2.0), mentioned that that day - the 29th of May - would have been her one year anniversary at our for employer. The date rang a bell - sure enough, 29 May 2023 was the last day of my first layoff in 2023.
(Thanks, InterWeb, for allowing me to preserve these milestones.)
She made a comment about the fact that it was funny how quickly things could change.
I started doing some reflection. In the 366 days since this last layoff (Leap Year and all), I have been hired three times, laid off once, left one job (Produce (A)Isle, due to my current job), had a child graduate from high school and start college (Nighean Dhonn), have another one start graduate school (Nighean Bhan), had two children move back home (Nighean Gheal and Nighean Bhan), had a parent die (my mother), had a pet die (P the Rabbit), had an engagement (Nighean Bhan), and moved halfway across the country
I was out of the country three times (Greece, Turkey, Japan) for a total of 5 weeks, unemployed at a main job for 4 months, enjoyed a 37% income drop, trained with my headmaster twice, hiked in the Sierras for a week (and felt like I almost did not make it), and made at least 8 trips back to The Ranch.
Also, we had to replace our roof. Mostly out of our pocket.
In other words, it turned out to be quite an unexpected year.
If I sit and look at all of that, I feel...well, exhausted. Any two of the events listed in the first paragraph would have been been a lot. All of them together? No wonder I feel a bit overwhelmed at times.
The funny thing to me is that some years are not like this. 2015? Relatively straightforward, other than likely I was having issues with my job (like almost every year). 2017 and 2018? Other than a graduation or two from high school and the knowledge of my mother's Alzheimer's and what was likely starting to manifest itself as my job stress, not much (good heavens, we even went to Iceland in 2018).
So why this "year"? Why all this now?
I do not fully have the reasons for it. I am sure, in God's economy, it makes sense. If I had to hazard a guess - always risky when involving God but based on what continues to be the outcome of these events in my own mind - is simply that I needed to have my attention grabbed and shaken to think about other things. Things like getting too programmed, of having too many things, of not being able to make decisions that I needed to make.
Suffice it to say that I hoping for a relatively "dull" next twelve month cycle.
That list wears me out too! I always think that stuff like that comes in threes. I hope the reason I think that, is so after the third event, my attitude can return to positive at the thought of easier days ahead and create those easier days.
ReplyDeleteEd, I do not think I had realized quite the extent of what the last twelve months had been like until I went through this thought exercise - and then my reaction was "Oh Wow". Some of general unsettledness and even random discouragement is now explained.
DeleteThat's quite the list TB, got tired just reading it. You've lived interesting times in a short period, let's pray things calm down a bit, eh?
ReplyDeleteI was as exhausted as you when I got to the end of it, Nylon12.
DeleteI would pray things calm down; given the world we live in, I do not know how likely that is.
It was indeed an eventful year for you, although not the kind of thing anyone would want to repeat! It seems, though, that the milestone events should be behind you for now. Wishing you a boring upcoming year!
ReplyDeleteLeigh, in a parallel conversation with Rainbow tonight, she pointed out that in point of fact many of the events actually lead to the point of where we are today - almost, in some sense, as if things were scripted. Although it took me a bit of time to accept that, it does give me confidence that things will continue to work themselves out in the future.
DeleteYour comment above to Leigh is thought provoking. It is good to look back and see the connectedness of all the things in our lives. In my life, whether a "script" surfaces or not, my recognizing the guiding and protective hand of God is, perhaps, the most important thing.
ReplyDeleteBecki, the old saw of "Life is lived forwards but understood backwards" is still around because it is true. Too often it is only with benefit of hindsight that things come into view: why a certain thing did not occur, why a person entered - or left - our lives. The challenge there is to take that lesson and realize that if God was in control then, He remains in control now for the parts that we do not see yet.
DeleteI've never heard that expression, TB. I love it!
DeleteBecki, it is one those things that I struggle to know where I originally heard it.
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