Season of change

I wouldn't say I've fully accepted my role as architect of my own life, but wheels are in motion. (As is, evidently, my capacity for mixed metaphors.) Having lived with me from Jan-Nov of last year, my mother will be returning to Alaska in the fall. I'll be moving out of this great little house. Leaving both jobs to accept Kari's offer to help manage her business expansion and spend my days in the company of dogs.

For a time there will be more balls in the air than I can manage, with moving, transition out of both existing jobs, the challenges of a new enterprise. And delights in the chaos - multiple visits with Michele and Chuck's 12-canine (and one cat) crew in order for them to enjoy summer travel, Danika's visit here for the first half of August.

And there will be the sense (and the reality) of shaking some supports for others. One job already has its end date. The other will be harder to detach and keep necessary business integrity in place. Whether or not I continue with Friends of Pets will be partly up to that group to determine. But in general I feel good about yielding both the burden of worry and the control to others to manage how they will cope with my decisions, rather than me figuring out how to manage it all and make it perfectly okay for everyone except me.

And then in the madness, somewhere one of the balls will drop out and my arms won't be trembling as much and I will re-center and keep juggling. And then the objects I'm juggling will turn from chainsaws into beanbags and I'll feel a little less endangered. And somewhere down the line it'll be me tossing one ball up and down and maybe bouncing it against the wall a few times just for fun.

I realize I am painting a rather uncharacteristic picture of optimism here. Don't worry, I'm sure there are also multiple disasters-of-the-month prepared to launch, since (1) some streaks cannot be broken, and (2) this blog would have no purpose otherwise.