It has been a long while since I’ve posted on my freelance
and kitty blogs. I have, though, been
highly distracted—since January I’ve been grappling with a maternal genetic
legacy: osteoarthritis of both hip
joints and two surgeries within eight months.
At age 50. Yep. Surgery totally sucks…but the aftermath has
been worth the journey: While I am still
recovering from my second surgery that took place August 26, I am back living
in the land of the moving! And, oh, how
I’ve missed ye… I am up to about 25
minute walks, and I look forward to snow shoeing this winter and hiking next
summer. And last weekend I returned to, more or less, a normal workout
at the gym (focusing, though, on upper body and treadmill walking). And all
this is good. Very very good.
It is the beginning of the autumn season and the Jewish New
Year. So I find it interesting that,
during this season of introspection and renewal, it has also been a time of
personal emotional and physical healing. I’ve given a lot of thought to this next phase
of my life…what do I truly want?!! Good
is, indeed, good. It can be
sufficient. But for the remaining 30 to
40 years I may be blessed with, I am at a point in my life where I believe I
can have more than sufficient. I want great. I want fabulous. I want stupendous abundance in all areas of
import. It’s time for reinvention!! To indeed live up to the promise of Helen
2.0, a gift I’ve been given with the renewed gift of mobility.
So I’ve been asking myself…where is my love, my joy; what are my passions?! How can I reinvent being relevant…to me?!!
Where do I begin my
reinvention? Since my late 20s, every
few years I seem to have this need to reevaluate. Wasn’t it Socrates who said that an
unexamined life is one not worth living?
First order of business: to reevaluate what I’ve been doing here, in
Colorado, since I relocated west of the mighty Mississippi in 1998. Of course, for the short term I will fall
back on the meat and potatoes that have been the focus of my creative and educational
pursuits (as well as helping keep the lights on!): short-term or one-time Percussion Lady
programming and performances for seniors, tykes, children, adults; Golda Meir
performances for adults and school age children; and online educational writing
and curriculum development. And, thank
goodness, I’m slowly booking gigs for the autumn season and am now contracted
for two (!!) online educational writing gigs.
I absolutely enjoy all of these
things, but they seem, at times, so disparate. Is there any way to tie them
together into one umbrella of joy and passion?
Which items stay and which go? How
can I refresh what I do in joyful, value-added ways?
To help me on this journey of
self-relevancy, I have come across two readings I am finding of high
value: Breaking the Time Barrier: How to Unlock Your True Earning Potential
by Mike McDerment and Donald Cowper (http://breakingthetimebarrier.freshbooks.com/)
and The Irresistible Business Challenge
by Melissa Cassera (http://melissacassera.com/) Both have gotten me to think that I am much
more than an educational consultant or performance artist.
Oh, the future possibilities for
Helen 2.0! A Wikipedia post about me…giving
a TED talk…having a following interested in my writing and performing…animal
advocacy…writing a regular news-worthy newsletter and publishing an article in
a national rag…being interviewed on television for my performing and acting…accepting
my academy award for best supporting actress…
I can certainly dream big!
I am not sure of any of these answers, dear reader, but you get to go on
the journey with me if you so choose. I
hope you do. However any of this goes, I
promise to document the way via my writing.
And for the immediate now:
a minimum one post a week to either my freelance or kitty blogs. It is now the time to take myself and my
writing more seriously and yet more joyfully.
Yep.
To conclude this
reinvention introduction. A
suggestion I read from Melissa Cassera is to connect my personal/professional
musings to the larger cultural zeitgeist … make it trend-worthy. Two thoughts, then:
So in my 50th year I get to reinvent my present
and future for the next 35+ years. I
want this last third of my life to surpass my wildest expectations…and when
it’s my time to return home, I hope it will be mercifully quick as it was for Joan
Rivers. She certainly did live life on
her terms, to the fullest. And, she was
a staunch supporter of the State of Israel, to boot. And that is what I want. To live my life to the fullest. To truly be fully used up before I die.
And… during my three-week convalescence earlier in September,
I had the chance to catch up on DVR’d shows and currently trending topics. It is much to my chagrin that A&E has
been so shortsighted to cancel Longmire…a
wonderfully written show with colorfully complex characters (notwithstanding
opportunities for area actors like myself to audition for day player roles!). Although I do not know really how to feel at
age 50—am I really just 40, or do I sometimes feel 55+??—I am, I guess, of the
demographic that advertisers do not value?
Strange... Within the next one to
three years I anticipate having much more disposable income based primarily on
my re-evaluation of my value and passions… I certainly will apply my disposable
income to those who value my tastes and preferences. And I am hopeful Longmire will find a new
home, and I will follow the show there…Yep.
Indeed!
#LongLiveLongmire, #JoanRivers
