A River Between

The pond at my parents home in Memphis, MO.

My friend Gary came to speak to our Northfield People for Peace group last night, and spoke about his experience with HIV and how he’s soon to complete his 25th bike ride in the fight against AIDS. He’s raised over $100,000 to fight HIV and AIDS now! Incredible! This man is in his 40s and just incredibly healthy. A lot of what he spoke about was keeping his stress down, and keeping his life in balance. While there were other incredible pieces to his story that he shared, I came away with a sense of wanting more of a balanced life than I may have now. Also perhaps the need to be more adventurous.

This summer will be a great preparation for me in starting this balance. I’ll be studying for an eventual career change in Arts Administration, cutting back my work schedule to 34 hours per week, and there are a few things on my plate that I’m going to be cutting. The toughest part for me is the “letting go” of things that I am passionate about. Once I let go, I’m fine. I will more than likely need to reduce my involvement in the Peace group due to my class schedule, and this is somewhat disappointing to me. But, I know that like everything that changes, it will weave itself into my life in time.

This will be a time for me to do more meditating, hopefully get back into my OM Yoga for Beginers, and do more “soul feeding” before going back to school. My trips will help. I’ll be going to my folks’ place over fourth of july, and then to DemiCon (one of my favorite science fiction conventions). As far as adventure, I really would love to get back to Alaska in the coming year if I can. There’s a story in that one as well, that I will share at another time. It’s been three years since I’ve been there, and I’d love to go back to both relax, and to do some research for a writing project I’m starting to feel compelled to complete.

But that’s work. This post was about balance. Is it nap time yet?