Driving across North Dakota today was amazing. The ground was white with snow, and the sky was the same color. It looked to be snowing always in the distance, but never where I was. Driving through valleys, past buttes and rivers, I thought about the people who used to live here, who trekked through the snow with their bands of other humans, and animals. Wow!

Episode #37 of "Stories from the Road" is now available for download!

Today held a lot of amazingness for me. I slept late, always nice, but shortly after waking up I received a call from the group home where I’ve been working. I am on call three days this week, and the call was to ask me to come in today. The group home provides a full time home for 5 residents, and there are 3 crisis stabilization beds as well.
The amazingness comes into play in the interactions I had with the two persons who are currently occupying crisis beds. I felt so much respect for both of them, and was able to do some good listening and some good sharing with both of them. It’s really amazing to me how my life has provided me with experiences that, through sharing, can offer valuable perspective to others. I know part of the value is in how I share, and it is very pleasing to me to see how much I’ve learned in that context. I left the group home tonight feeling really good about the people I’d spent time with today and about how I handled myself. It’s nice to feel good about one’s work...and by work I do not mean “job” work but the work of one’s life. It's also powerful to learn about people's lives, what they've gone through, and how they are digesting their life experiences.

I just gave notice at my job. I plan to head east by March 13 or so at the latest.

Now that I've made the decision I feel some relief, and still some disappointment over what happened with the person here who I thought was a friend. I also feel excited. This just isn't the place for me to settle long term, which I knew, and since the main project I came to work on has fallen through, I'm going to redirect my energies into other projects elsewhere.

Packing and shipping are now the name of the game.

Today I am working through my anger and frustration over the shift in my living situation here in Montana. Options are appearing both here and in other places, however, and some of them are very interesting to me. I'm sure to land on my feet.

One of my challenges in life has to do with being flexible in the face of unexpected inconvenience. I'm sure I'm not the only one who struggles with that at times. My experience is that once I get over the moments of surprise and my emotional reaction to that, I'm pretty adaptable.

This week's radio show pertains to these issues. Check it out.