To an auspicious, new year

I type this while I try to dodge the distracting, licking affections of Ellie Mae. She's been house-bound all week due to Florida's long cold spell.

Anyway, I aspire to blog at least once a week, and since I know today marks the end of the first week of the year, I am compelled to post SOMEthing before days' end. My challenge has been to pin down a topic. I trust that as I type, the topic will bare itself ...

My goals pertaining to creativity, photography and fitness are on standby until things settle down.

My future is based on faith ... "Jump and the net will appear." I am hoping I remember to go with the flow of life instead of swimming against it.

Of noteworthy mention is my tough decision to give notice at my current job of 5 years, and the difficulty of sticking to it especially after they countered and appealed to the part of me that wants a sure thing, to the part that resists change. Their loyalty and kindness toward me over the years has had me unyieldingly responding in kind, but I can't continue to do so at the cost of eventually finding myself in the unemployment line. I have seen the writing on the wall at the satellite office due to today's economic climate, and it would be imprudent of me to ignore it.

Of course I wouldn't be blogging about it had I not been given an opportunity and helping hand to go to a more promising place, the timing of which came the first of the year. I took this as my chance for a fresh start in a new environment.

Speaking of new environment, I am also in the process of relocating and am meeting with a realtor today to give her the signed lease and to pay for application fees and first month's rent. Unfortunately, I must await approval from the association before I can move ... but I will see that as a necessary pause to give myself time to acclimate to the new changes.



Switching topics, I finally watched the movie, Marley and Me, this week, and nothing could prepare me for the ending ... especially when I never got closure over losing my 14-year old dog, Shadow. On Thanksgiving weekend, I found the back gate wide open, and after days and nights of searching, he was nowhere to be found ... That came as a rude and brutal blow to my already delicate state from the debilitating discovery of an indiscretion and continued breach of trust that set in motion my eventual departure from Miami. Anyway, Shadow is a dog beyond compare, and he will forever be etched in my mind and heart as the smartest and most loyal canine companion that I have ever had the privilege of sharing my life with.


With respect to my son, he recently wrote a positive letter indicating that his new job within his cold confines has given him a sense of normalcy for which I am elated. I know that his strength, strong character and guardian angels will see him through until I can finally hold him as a free man. And with time appearing to move as swiftly as it has, it will be here before I know it ...

As I work on closing this, I find that Ellie Mae is still a distraction, only this time, it's due to her loud and jolting snore. :) As she is Mike's birthday present, she will remain with him. I will miss her English bulldog charms, but not her destructiveness, lack of smarts, ill potty training habits, and stubbornness, lol.