The speedy solstice

I say this every year, but this year it's seriously truer than ever -- the last 12 months have gone by incredibly fast. 

I wonder that when things are just crazy/kind of bad, the brain's perception of time speeds up to protect itself. That doesn't explain why time flies when you're having fun, or the years zipping past so quickly as the boys were growing up, but that's the explanation I'm going with for this evening.

I have returned to Donner Park for my annual summer solstice post, a few days too late because of clouds and a Weird Al Yankovic concert that Benji and I attended last night. It has already been six weeks since I was laid off, two months since my sabbatical (thank God I took it before being let go), six months since Christmas, nearly eight since the election (ugh), 10 since we moved Benji into the dorms, and nearly 11 since Ben and I visited Chicago last summer. All these events seem so recent but are in the past.

And nothing is slowing time down.

The political situation sucks, nothing I can really do about that. But what I've realized -- maybe more had confirmed -- since the layoff is that I was really unhappy at work (and even the sabbatical didn't help). When that happens, you just try to survive each week.  

Being unemployed isn't a picnic, and the last six weeks haven't been a picnic on multiple fronts, but I'm feeling more optimistic than I have in a while. The opportunities to do something new are there and already in progress. I did contract work over the past two weeks or so, and though it took a little while to get back into a writing groove, it felt good. No matter how uncertain I feel about the immediate future, I'm excited about it. My mom says to me, "It will all work out." Just a little, it's beginning to all work out.

Aside from work, there are other plans -- around the house, for my personal growth, to enjoy life. There is more organization than a year ago, with a blueprint to expand that. I need to get writing, as I always say I do, but there is a plan for that. It's summer, and I love summer and, unintentionally, will have a little more time to enjoy it over the next 10 weeks. 

And there's this perfect sunset on a perfect June evening.

The fear I'm feeling being unemployed is still there, but it's tempered with hope and positivity. Ideally, next summer, I'll be looking back on 2025 as the year life went haywire on me but the haywire was the best thing that could have happened.

If not, I'm sure it will still all work out.

PAST SOLSTICE POSTS

 

 

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