by Heather Plett | Oct 5, 2009 | Uncategorized
I am still here, though I seem to be mostly silent on this blog these days. There are only so many hours in a day, and it seems that most of those hours get eaten up pretty quickly with laundry, grocery shopping, going to (and worrying about) work, driving kids to soccer games and art classes and play dates, helping my oldest 2 daughters deliver flyers so that they can afford cell phones and funky shoes that their parents won’t buy, trying to catch up on sleep, and once in awhile managing to eek out an interesting post over here.
Mostly I’m okay with the hub-bub of life, but these days, I just feel so very, very weary. Today especially, after spending too many hours on my feet this past weekend delivering flyers, catching up on grocery shopping in the mega-grocery-store-that-has-everything-but-requires-hours-of-pushing-a-cart-through-crowded-aisles, and then a rousing game of soccer in which Julie’s team played (and were beat by) their parents, I am feeling every one of the 43 years of this body’s age. My gosh – we just don’t spring back like we used to, do we?
I’m not quite sure what to report today. I’ve started to write this post a few times, but instead of the upbeat list of fun things going on in my life, my writing very quickly seems to spiral into a vortex of fears, challenges, complaints, and stresses that I’m dealing with at my day job these days. I can’t go there, for obvious reasons, so maybe I’ll just say this… I am burnt out. I need a break. I need to not be anybody’s boss for awhile.
Part of me desperately wants to “leap and trust that the net will appear” – just hand in my notice (I have to give 3 months, since I’m a director and it’s in my contract) and hope and pray that within 3 months (or probably longer as there are things going on I feel somewhat obligated to wrap up) I’ll be able to build enough of a freelance/consulting business to sustain our family. But there’s that practical side of me that wants to cry every time I go grocery shopping or the girls come home with yet another soccer fee, band fee, lunch fee, worn out sneakers… you name it.
(If you’re worried that I’m taking a risk by putting this on my blog, let me allay your fears by telling you that I’ve already warned my boss that I don’t intend to be in this position a year from now. It’s not really a secret that I have other ambitions and that I’m burnt out.)
If you are given to prayer, feel free to join those who have already wrapped their prayers around me and my family. I need some clarity, I need some focus, and I need a way out of this place I’m in. Mostly, I need to know whether I am wise or foolish to follow my passion into the land of the self-employed. (And if you’re in the position to offer me contracts for writing/public speaking/workshop facilitation/communications planning, or offer my husband a teaching job, we could sure use that too!)
It seems to me that handing in my notice and making the leap would be the perfect way to wrap up this year of living more fearlessly. What do you think?
by Heather Plett | Sep 29, 2009 | Uncategorized
I’m in Toronto at my favourite Bed and Breakfast. I have one more lunch meeting today, and then I fly home this afternoon. It’s been a long and full (and so many other adjectives – all of them good) journey, and I’m looking forward to being home with my dear family.
I’ll be loading more pictures on Flickr eventually, but for now, here’s a little taste of the many places I’ve wandered this week. (In no particular order.) These are just the “places” pics, the “people” pics will come later when I have more time to share the stories that go with them.
For a little more on the transformative impact of the trip, go here.
by Heather Plett | Sep 25, 2009 | Uncategorized
I’m in Cleveland! If this trip were to end right now, it would already be worth the trip. (And the best part hasn’t even begun yet!) It has been truly wonderful. The train ride was sublime (you meet the most amazing people on a train), wandering around Chicago was delightful, meeting Connie and Sandy and Christine was everything I dreamed of and more, meandering along the shoreline of Cleveland was magical, and relaxing in the hotel room has been rejuvenating.
It’s been perfect timing, because Jamie Ridler’s book club “The Next Chapter” is studying “The Joy Diet” and the first chapter is about adding a little more of “nothing” into our lives. I’ve added it in big doses in the last few days. Sitting and staring out the train window, wandering aimlessly down the streets of 2 new cities… it’s all been a lot of joyful “nothing”, but EVERYTHING at the same time.
I know it will be whole lot harder to find 15 minute snippets in my day-to-day life to continue the practice of doing nothing, but for now, I’m certainly enjoying what I’ve got. One day at a time.
There are a whole lot more photos to come (Millennium Park is amazing at dusk), but this seemed like a suitable “nothing” shot.
by Heather Plett | Sep 22, 2009 | Uncategorized
I got tagged by my dear friend Sandy (with whom I get to hang out in Cleveland in just a few days! Yay!) with this photo tag meme.
1. Open your first photo folder.
2. Scroll to the 10th photo.
3. Post the photo on your blog and tell the story behind it.
4. Tag some CREATIVE JUICY people to do the same!
Luckily, the first photo folder on this particular computer holds my Ethiopia photos. It’s not a terribly inspiring photo, but at least it’s from an interesting place. I’d just arrived at the Ghion Hotel in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia. I was suffering from major jet lag, but I was SO EXCITED I just had to start snapping pictures. My hotel room had a small patio out the back which I took full advantage of – sitting for hours reading, writing postcards, and processing all that I’d witnessed.
I arrived in Ethiopia 3 days before any of my companions did. I was bringing a film crew into the country to film some of our agriculture programs, but before they could enter, I needed to obtain the necessary film permits and government blessing (which required a whole lot of leaping through hoops, sweet-talking, and… well, it’s too complicated to tell you the whole story). In between multiple visits to the appropriate government offices, I wandered the streets of Addis Ababa (and that’s an adventure, I tell you!), and did a lot of de-compressing on the very spot on my patio that this photo was taken.
One thing you should know about Ethiopia that you probably never heard from anyone else – it is a STUNNINGLY beautiful country! Set aside all the images that come to mind when you think of Ethiopia (you know the ones – people dying of famine) and imagine a place where you begin your day of driving with vistas that rival the Rocky Mountains, in the afternoon you drive through the desert, and in the evening you pass through the Grand Canyon. In between, you reach the top of a plateau that is so surreal in it’s odd apocalyptic beauty that there are no words to describe it. Your jaw gets tired by the end of the day because it has dropped so many times. A few of my other photos are here.
And now it’s time to tag someone else. Hmmm… let’s see…I’ll go with
1. Michele
2. Anvilcloud
On an unrelated note, those of you who were present at my launch party for my new website (and maybe even those of you who weren’t) might enjoy the guest post I wrote about it over at this blog.
by Heather Plett | Sep 21, 2009 | Uncategorized
My lovely friend Michele is my guest today over at “What are you giving away”. She’s got a great post about whether in sharing our gifts we are actually receiving more than we’re giving. Check it out!
I’m looking for other guest posts, so please consider submitting one!
by Heather Plett | Sep 20, 2009 | Uncategorized
1. I just made chicken noodle soup. I make a lot of soup, but I think that’s the first time for chicken noodle. Frankly, it was a little intimidating and felt like I was walking on sacred ground. My grandmother made THE. BEST. CHICKEN. NOODLE. SOUP. BAR. NONE. Oh you may THINK you’ve tasted good chicken noodle soup, but until you’ve sampled the soup made with farm-grown chickens and fresh homemade noodles made by the loving hands of a Mennonite grandmother, you don’t know chicken noodle soup. Mine tasted quite good and the family was pleased with it, but it’s a pale shadow of what remains sacred in my memory.
2. Nicole’s been getting a little bored, sitting around letting her leg heal, so last night she had a bit of a party, inviting 4 of her closest friends over. We went out for awhile and when we walked in, the house was filled with laughter. I love that. I think if I were to write a mission statement for how I want my home to be, “filled with laughter” would be up at the top of the list.
3. Some of the keys on this computer are sticking. If a word happens to be missing an “n”, blame the keyboard.
4. Later this week, I’m going on an adventure and I am so excited! It involves a 24 hour train ride (lots of time for reading, writing, and daydreaming) a couple of days in Cleveland with some very cool people, a day spent at this amazing workshop, a couple of business-related days in Toronto where I’ll stay at my favourite B&B, dinner with one friend in Toronto, and then lunch with another. Is that fun or what?
5. Is this not the most spectacular September you have ever seen? It almost makes up for the crappy weather we suffered through all summer.
6. N&J signed up for a flyer route, and wouldn’t you know it, they got the call the week Nikki had knee surgery. So of course, Mom got recruited to walk and walk and walk for two hours – on the hottest day we’ve had all year. Two hours of walking and we didn’t think to bring a water bottle. Ugh. But the fun part? You get to check out a lot of houses – I didn’t know we had such a cool neighbourhood!
7. Last weekend, Marcel and I took Maddy and Abby (our niece) fishing. What a delightful day we had! Within minutes of our arrival, both girls had caught their first fish. Maddy’s a fishing veteran by now, but it was the first experience for Abby and let me tell you, that girl knows how to show delight!
