Sea Change* in Everyday Ramblings

It is hollyhock time on the flower clock. There is a gorgeous almost maroon one growing wild in the parking strip down at the end of the street where I go Walkies and I need to get out there with a camera when it is dry before it totally fades.

Yesterday we had an unusual amount of rain, even for June and there are puddles here in puddle town.

I have been a bit blue this week and I honestly think it is mostly physical in origin. I am very allergic to naturally occurring grasses and they were sort of at their peak.

As soon as the rain started in earnest I started feeling more energetic and my mood most definitely improved. Part of the huge benefit package one gets with a regular yoga practice is that the body awareness helps one understand that sometimes a mood is caused by what one has or hasn’t eaten and what one is breathing in. And there is no deep psychological reason… (well there could be, but addressing the physical needs first is a useful and sensible way to go….)

There is some unexpected news on the job front. The director, who I directly reported to after they let my manager and her manager go last year is retiring at the end of the calendar year. She is significantly younger than me and just recently got married as the ban on gay marriage here in Oregon was struck down. This is the woman that wrote the horrid letter that went in my file just a year ago, and initiated procedures to get me formally removed from my job and tried to kill my big project that has gone on to be such a major outward facing success.

I am happy for her in that she loves to travel and that is what her partner and her are going to do and I am very very happy for me. The psychological dimension of our interpersonal difficulties will be completely removed from the table. Her interim replacement is a kind practical experienced manager who is already trying to steal Saint Joe. But in a good respectful way. This is a big surprise because the director that is leaving I thought was next in line to become the head of our whole department.

I might, just might, I am not holding my breath, be able to attend the holiday party next year without psychological trauma. She’ll still be around this year and it will be her swan song. It is like waiting for a bus that just comes in sight. One still has to wait but relief is on the way.

My studio yoga classes are just not happening and I haven’t had the time to properly market them in what is a very competitive environment. I love working with my private student, but I am not making a go of it financially and so when I asked to switch to a different schedule a month ago the studio manager finally got back to me as I was heading out of town a week ago to say the days I wanted are not available.

So I am going to not renew my contract there. That means I will only be teaching on Friday’s and Sundays for three more weeks. And then I need to find a new space to teach in for the fall. That is perfect because my private student is retiring then.

Fingers crossed for me that I can find a decent reasonably priced place to teach in! It is a big step but I am ready for regular students and a serious commitment on my side of the river.

And! My weekends free.

My guess is that to get the days and time slots I want I will need to get creative. I can do that. And with the senior certification I am getting in October I think I can find a niche. I really do love teaching and I know that enthusiasm is infectious.

I can make this happen. I think I have proven on the work front that I can ride out some pretty intense adversity.

Yesterday the newly minted male manager (that I had an interaction with last year that he was unhappy with and escalated it to the above mentioned director that led to the horrid letter being put in my file because I wasn’t apparently showing proper respect to him) publicly contradicted something I said (it happens constantly there, the perception is that I know nothing) to be helpful, and later when he found out I was right made a huge effort to make that point, that I had been right, was right, blah blah blah.

It was an interesting Sea change.

*an idiom for broad transformation drawn from a phrase in Shakespeare's The Tempest