Gratituding

First I must report that my radiators are in abundantly good health. This is a very good thing, as it's not so warm outside, even though they are making my hands hot.

I am skipping rowing as a topic, promise!

I got to do one of favorite volunteer activities tonight - read out loud! For three hours! Awesome, right? Talk about a win-win situation. I think I started reading out loud a lot during car trips between home and college, and it continued when I moved even farther north and the drive only got longer. Whatever its point of origin with me, I totally dig it. So there's this organization called Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic that does, well, essentially exactly that. So, you go sit in a recording booth and read out loud for as much of three hours as you can. Me? I go for almost all of it, pausing for water breaks, of course. The tongue, it does get tired. I was paired with a girl who hadn't done this before (I say girl because she looked so young -- I'll intersperse a quote from my acupuncturist: "now that you're nearly 40...!" -- but it turns out she's getting her PhD!). According to her, I'm a natural radio talent. Funny. But this prompted the guy who works there to start talking about opportunities with Radio Cuba. So, huh, if the local job search doesn't go well....

The other super cool thing I reflected on as I walked to my car afterward, was that I feel like I'm turning back into myself. It's a grand thing. Getting to row again, daily, getting to read and write, volunteer -- all these things that got obliterated by all the effort I was pouring into the job are now getting restored/returned to me. It's so lovely.

Also had this bolt of clarity yesterday that I have two equally important missions right now. To enjoy the HELL out of this interim time that I have, to relish the break that so many folks don't get to take, to live life to the utmost and wring the gratitude from my days. The other, of course, is to leap in and have fun pursuing what the next step is to me -- both in finding a place where I can use my word/communication powers to contribute, further some org's great mission, and yes, make our world a better place (a do-gooder to the core, I fear) and also in pursuing freelance opportunities in the now. It's an exciting world of opportunities before me, which is really something.

Now I must asleep.