Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Sailing away from the safe harbor ...

Monday after the holidays. The first real day of the new year. The day when office life kicks back into full gear, children climb onto the yellow bus techno toys tucked deep into the pockets of their winter gear hidden from short-fused teachers, commuters slog onto the train platform or back their cars joylessly out of the garage and head back to work. No more half days and middle of the week parties where clinking glasses filled with holiday cheer snuff out the day-to-day minutia of the other 50 weeks. If I were a day, I wouldn't want to be today. To make matters worse, it's January. Days are dreadfully short, snow and ice are in the air or are heading my way and my jeans are a bit tight. Its grey grey grey ... and freezing. Daylight savings and the warm spring sun are light-years away.

But it is also the beginning. The year is fresh. Unsullied. Filled with possibilities. Pounds to lose. New friends to meet. Opportunities to explore. Money to make. Prioritizing the priorities. This year, 2010, I am singing a different tune. Off key perhaps, but with a syncopation and phrasing composed in transit. Am trying to dig down deeply into the crevices of my being to determine what I want to do when I grow up. To garner the courage to step away from the security of my cocooned village home on the New England coast. To leverage my skill set for the betterment of others and not for brain dead consulting assignments or volunteer boards that trip over themselves trying to set their initiatives and implement staid objectives. But to ignite my imagination. To envision a new life-style without the safety net. One which makes the most of not only what I can offer, but what I need to internalize, to experience before I shut my hazel green eyes for the big sleep. Whatever it is will encompass world travel and multi-cultural experiences giving of my self. Teaching ESL? Inspiring the next generation in some capacity? Mentoring elders in villages on the savannah or near the rice paddies on entrepreneurial projects for future sustainability?

Guided by the immortal words of fellow Lotosian, Samuel Clemens (whose larger than life ideas, magical pursuits and intellectual curiosity have delighted generations of adventurers) I am taking my first steps on this new path. "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

Tomorrow, I promise: less philosophizing more footing in reality. I have plans to make. An 'a faire' list to create. Strategies to implement. Less procrastinating. The hell with the 30 day lead time I allowed. Need to get on with the business of making this change. And, to start shedding the weight, the burden of the naughty aughts ... the zero decade ... and head down the highway to the renewed me.

Cheers ... until tomorrow!

No comments:

Post a Comment