This is the fifth post in my series on my new long-term goals. Go here to see the first post in the series.
This is the one long-term goal that for the most part remains unchanged from last year. Last year it was share my writings, music, art and message with a wider audience. And this year I shortened it to share my message.
And it remains a large part of my work in the world. So much so, that I had to find a way to balance this goal against the long-term goal of nurturing my life. This was the core of my balance pursuit.
And like the earlier ones, this long-term goal also has three sub-goals – write/publish, teach and connect.
Writing/Publishing
This goal includes writing this blog of course, but also publishing books, podcasts, and other media. Once I discovered that my current book was born out of a practice of writing articles on topics that interested me, I realized how important it is to just write about whatever catches my fancy. Most of those articles have never seen the light of day. They will eventually be repurposed into either a book of essays or expanded into books of their own. At least two have been turned into conference workshops and a third was used in my Descent workshop. I am learning so much about writing as practice, and I oh so look forward to the writing that will be required as part of the program at Assisi.
Teach
On average, I plan to teach 5 to 6 one-day classes, 3 sequestered weekends, 5 ritual/classes each year. In previous years, I also taught 3 to 4 six/seven week classes plus one or two conferences, festivals, lectures and sermons scattered throughout the year. I am hoping to add some online/tele-seminar courses plus maybe encourage some invites for a few out of town classes. I also want to debut a new set of what I call Essential classes to replace the Reclaiming courses I no longer teach.
Some, many of my friends and students, would call this overdoing it. But if you ever have taken a class from me, you probably know why I feel such a calling to teach. I just love teaching! I will necessarily hold off on some of my plans because plainly I will need the time since I am now back in school. But … I will have to scratch that teaching itch every so often just to keep the urge under control.
Connect
In my mission statement, I explicitly state that I want to be willing to touch and be touched by the journeys of my loved ones. I was trying to capture my need to make room for authentic loving relationships in my life. This is still true for me. The new insight is that this extends not only to my family and friends but also to my students, colleagues and members of my community. My natural introversion and the nature of my illnesses act as barriers to my participation in many community events. It takes a great deal of planning, assistance from others and time afterwards for recovery for me to just show up for most functions.
But what is funny is that if I am teaching at an event, I can usually pull it off. That is why I could attend select Pagan Pride festivals over the years. Each time, I was asked to present a short class on a topic. The other way that works for me is a focused discussion or a class on a topic I have an interest in presented by a teacher I admire.
Several times this past 12 months, I planned to attend an event then had to cancel due to illness or exhaustion. It is frustrating to say the least.
Now that I have a diagnosis, I am hoping to be more available in some respects. But of course, the next obstacle is my calendar of crazy. This fall, I had only two free weekends from September through December. The first free weekend was Labor Day, and right at the moment, I cannot recall when the next one occurs.
With my weekends full, I focus instead on having more time for folks mid week. I try to meet up with friends for dinner, movies and just hanging out during the week. I also am getting better with setting up times to chat over the phone with long distance friends. As I plan for 2010, I will need to keep this goal in mind.
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Submitted by katrina on Mon, 09/14/2009 - 10:05am.
Wish I could be there. Very well spoken.
Katrina,
I wish you all the blessings and power you need on your journey. Thank you for these words. It is good to remember that returning to work (and thus returning to grace) bring a chance for us all to rest and have joy.
Wishing you joy in the Work.
David
Dear Katrina- Thorn reposted your blog and happy am I. Your passion, always so immense, comes blowing out in these words. So akin to my own heart and soul that it makes me have a bittersweet smile.
The Storm is only now coming to the edges of our universe and yet it will sweep and consume all that is. In the end, our beautiful universe will be so much...more? Different? Complete? Who knows?
All I do know is my soul came here to witness and be part in this period. I cannot shrink from the work. I am here with you, fae sister!
Thought-provoking piece, Katrina. Thanks.
I don't know what to call myself either. In Pagandom, I've taken to referring to myself as a Witch at Large. In the interfaith world where I'm active, I call myself a Pagan. Sometimes I call myself an uppity woman or a Second Wave Feminist. I've never really thought to publicly identify myself by my sexuality, het woman, which is very "white bread" and old-fashioned. Not only het, but serially monogamous for the most part. It seems almost a liability these days to say you're het, but I am proudly and happily so. I tend towards intellectualism but only have a BA, which doesn't carry much weight, at least in public and professional worlds, no matter how much you've studied, trained, and can articulate, even teach.
My biological heritage is Irish, Dutch, French Huguenot, Euro-mongrel. My social heritage is Roman Catholic on one side and conservative Methodist, temperance-crusading, women's rights and education on the other, with distinct East Coast sensibilities, now mellowed by more than half a century living on the Left Coast. My maternal political heritage is conservative Republican (altho what my relatives might think of current trends in the GOP I cannot imagine, since they did have brains and they did think and they did have a social conscience), yet I am much farther left in my outlook than any elected official I know. My paternal political heritage is blue collar Democratic, except that my dad broke with his family on politics and allied with my mother's family's conservatism.
I'm a former hippie, a home-birth advocate, a home death and green burial advocate, an opponent of capital punishment and resorting to warfare to resolve humankind's differences. I support the right to conscious self-deliverance. I rejoice in any and all consensual expressions of love and eros. I'm a lover and a mom.
I have never missed voting in an election and I disrespect those who don't avail themselves of this hard-won right. (I have ancestors who fought the Brits in the American Revolution.) I support workers' rights. I recognize our interdependence on this planet, so could be called a greenie. I'm a committed environmentalist in my day-to-day life (in terms of eating locally grown food, expanding public transit, recycling, preserving open space and wildlife, opposing exploitation of natural resources [strip mining, oil-drilling, nuclear facilities, agribusiness, monocultures, clear-cutting timber, overuse of pesticides, genetic modification, etc.]) I want to make the city streets "safe for dancing," as my old friend Tony Serra said when he ran for mayor of SF on the Platypus Party ticket.
Well, you got me going there, my friend. Thought-provoking read, as I said. ;-)
xo,
Macha
Lovely azaleas!
[cough][gag][snort][sneeze]
Just lovely...
I know what you mean.
I feel you. There is too much bs- particularly when people decide that their temperament is tantamount to truthful and ignore everyone else.
I get irked by immature extroverts or closet introverts who ignore you REPEATEDLY and then pretend you're out of line for being upset by the time they can't pretend you didn't say anything anymore. I find that the same people will ignore you if you blow up right away, too, and that it's because they just don't think that honoring what you value is important to maintaining a relationship, or even worse: that you don't know what you value at all and that it's all a mind game for their pleasure or annoyance. Then they call you passive-aggressive, aggressive, moody, touchy and temperamental. I call them "not listening".