July 1st- New Chapter

I am one of those lucky ones who have a little over a month off during the summer, because I work in a school district. Until this state goes to an all-year school system, my pay gets stretched out into a full year. Despite public opinion, this does not give me more money for less work, but a paycheck all year to compensate for my not getting the opportunity to work at my job. Like teachers, I have no say on when I work per se- I work when the school year permits.
Having said this, I know I am blessed with a period of time that I can refresh, reconnect, and reconfigure my life. Sure there are some routine and mundane chores that I could tackle and sometimes do, yet just some down time to reeavulate what I am doing with my life is really, really good.
I realized just recently that with this time off configured as it is, I am doing this introspection at the half way point of the year. I planned all my me-work just after the summer solstice, which seems significant to me. I have plans to work-out more, eat better, organize my growing pile of stuff, and concentrate on my writing.
There is another reason this time seems so significant as the beginning of a new chapter- I am going to be a grandmother for the first time. My oldest daughter is due very, very soon. As I look back at my pregnancy with her about the same time of year, I do become retrospective. All my hopes, fears, and plans were not much different than hers are now. I have the joy of knowing those feelings have worked out for the most part, well.
Also, realizing that the human spirit is resilient when overcoming the bad things and forever hopeful for the yet to be. I relish each part of this new chapter in my life. Until next time...