It happened on October 14th. I knew it at the time, and was relieved. I wasn’t sure it would last, but it has for two weeks. What happened is I gave up my struggle, my angst about not being able to retire with my job all tidy. What replaced that struggle was a peace with whatever was going to happen.
On that day I had another event staring at me, that was taking place on the 20th. It’s an event with a labyrinth of details, involving a lot of people and taking nine weeks for the preparation. On the afternoon of the 14th, I took care of the next set of details, and realized it would be okay. I no longer needed or wanted to be experiencing stress. I felt some peace, thus some ease. The 20th came, the event happened. Mistakes occurred, repairs made, and the outcome was delightful for our students. At the luncheon wrapping up the event, my colleagues acknowledged my fifteen years of contributions. This was my last time to do this, and it felt just right. Not too happy, not too sad. Just right.
I work in Special Education as a Transition Coordinator. I attend a lot of annual IEP (Individual Education Program) meetings. In order to remember for the next year, I right notes to myself about information I gave, and next steps for that student and family. Yesterday I was writing notes from a challenging meeting. I decided it would be nice for the next person to know what helped moderate the challenges. I added a sticky note, which started with: “Dear new Transition Coordinator”. Writing that gave me great delight, and I plan to do more of that. I have no idea how the new Transition Coordinator will react, and it doesn’t matter. It makes me grin, and is helping me acknowledge it won’t be me next year.
Lorna's Meanderings 