Retreats, Careers and the Feelings In-Between

2011 is getting a hard, forceful slap goodbye. 

I sat here trying to find the most eloquent way to describe what has happened in the last two days and realized there is no way better than to state the facts as they are.  I quit my job and am going on a personal healing retreat.  Ok, so it’s not as “Eat, Pray, Love” as it sounds, but it’s close. 

This year was extremely challenging for me, both personally and professionally.  Having come full circle by December 30^th feels fantastic and I am determined to begin 2012 with my heart and my head in the exact right place. 

About two months ago, when things were feeling extremely uneasy at the shelter, an opportunity came across my desk to apply for a position with a different non-profit.  Turns out, the position was a perfect fit and starting January 23, I will be a Director at one of the largest homeless youth organizations in the country.  Resigning today was one of the more difficult things I have done this year, as my heart is very much wrapped up in the “funky little beach house” that is my homeless and runaway youth shelter.  Leaving 1736 is one of the most difficult decisions I have had to make in a long time.  I adore my staff and every single kid that has come across my path in the last 2.5 years.  However, just as my evening Residential Care Manager said to me today, I am ready for something bigger and the amount of lives that I have the opportunity to impact are infinite.   I am very much looking forward to this adventure and am excited to bridge a new and stronger relationship between my current shelter and the three shelters I will be managing in the future. 

On the personal side of life, I am leaving Sunday to literally disappear off the radar for the first week of 2012.  I have taken 9 days off from work, which I had planned to spend with some of my family. When those plans fell through, I decided to look into a suggestion that my clinical supervisor at work recommended.  I will spend the first 6 days of the year in Big Sur, CA at the Esalen Institute attending a personal growth workshop called “Awakening the Heart”.  From what I have been told, Esalen is an “absolutely magical place”.  It is a “retreat center for adults who are looking to transform their life”.  Am I expecting complete transformation? No.  But I am expecting 6 days of learning a bit more about myself and a place that will offer enough air to let me fully breathe in everything that is about to change in my life. 

And those two items are just the beginning of it.  There are numerous other things on the horizon including the possibility of a new relationship to 3 new classes that I need to choose from for my graduate school.  2011 will go down in my history as a year that will not soon be forgotten.  I am grateful that it brought me everything from hysterical laughter to suffocation in my own tears – as well as every single thing in between.  2012 has a lot to live up to.