On Changes

"Change, change and change again, but for the better! It is the tree that is not flexible which is broken by wind. For to live is to change, and to live long is to change often." - Father Quinn 1999

I recently solicited some advice from my sister about a potential life-change that I was considering.  Her advice:

“My advice is simple and as follows:

Be careful

Be smart

Do what makes you happy

If it's not making you happy change it.”

I remember using my sister's advice a few years back as I lay on the floor of my apartment crying for no reason on my birthday.  She said, “Be proactive, Diane, not reactive.” 

This post is as much about good advice as it is about choice and change.

I worked with a life coach between May and November.  He really helped my to put my life in perspective, to questions my motives, values, feelings and he led me to envision what it was that I really wanted in life.  What is that you want in life?  That’s the same question my osteopath asked about 6 weeks ago.  What do I want?  Life is sometimes just a big game of elimination.  I love how my life has recently unfolded  changed.  Back in August I was meditating.  In my mind I could see a clear picture.  It wasn’t a field of daffodils, or a glistening river, no.  It was a computer screen with the airplane icon.  

Like a Ouigi board, the cursor on the computer screen kept moving towards the airplane icon.  The message was clear to me, buy a flight.  It wasn’t until September when I was back in Brasil and brainstorming ideas for life, and while Skyping with a friend that I went ahead and bought a ticket for Thailand.  It was perfect.  December 20 – March 20.  It would be exactly 12 years since I left Canada, the year of the Dragon again, and this time, I would travel alone.  I spent the next few months putting together the itinerary.  This is about as far as I got.

Travel route:

Simply Postponed

I contacted several Yoga schools regarding the possibility of becoming certified while there, and I started working on a Yoga project that I thought I could pilot while there.  In January I planned to attend he Bangkok job fair and I was eye-balling Kenya International School.  It was there that I could work in a good school, and be part of the Africa Yoga Project as well.  That was IF I got the job. 

My plan sounds pretty good doesn’t it?

Then I raced the Ironman.  November 27, 2011.  Twenty-four days before I was supposed to leave for SE Asia. 

It’s amazing how you can trace where you are sitting right now to pivotal moments.  Moments that shaped who you are, where you are, and right now, you are shaping where you are going.  We often forget that we have an internal compass of values and principals, and that we are, what we are. 

I got back from Mexico and continued talking to Ricardo (refer to Ironman trilogy part IV: the sequel) on Skype every day.  Did any smart famous person ever say that crazy is wrong? 

Dictionary.com says

Crazy:

1.  mentally deranged; demented; insane.

2.  senseless; impractical; totally unsound: a crazy scheme.

3.  Informal . intensely enthusiastic; passionately excited: crazy about baseball.

But I prefer Gnarles Barkley’s rendition

December 6^th rolled around and I had already talked with the principal at the American School Foundation in Mexico City.  The day after the Ironman I received a message regarding a possible job opening with a January start date.  The job was given to an internal candidate, but Evan (the principal) was keen on hiring me for an August start date.  That Tuesday night Evan Skype chatted me, “I’d like to offer you the job.” 

I was actually on a Skype call with Ricardo at the time, so he got to share the moment with me.  With that

I called Travelocity and cancelled my ticket for a small $1600 penalty.  The next day, I bought a ticket to Mexico instead.  Though it’s an August start date, and there’s no place I’d rather be.  

I would have 9 days to pack up my life in Brasil.  I am not suggesting that spontaneity and impulsive decision-making are essential to change; but all things, including opportunities have an expiration date.   

December 16: Two bottles of wine and Skype chat with Kirsten ... a little visit with the porcelain princess and one hell of a hangover for game-day.  That is packing tape on my arm yes!

Today - December 26, 2011

I have eaten my body weight in enchiladas, tacos, burritos, salsa, sychronizados, I have had wine, beer and yes, Mexican tequila.  I have hit a piñata, seen the pyramids, and Mission Impossible 4 (not Mexican, but still fun).  I golfed 9 holes, then 18 holes, got a Mexican hair cut (this deserves an explanation).

The Mexican Haircut:

2:02pm            Enter hair salon

2:05pm            Hair cut begins.  Dani sprays head and another girl brushes.

2:06pm            Dani cuts hair

2:09pm            Cut is finished

2:10pm            I am moved to new chair for blowdry.  Three girls work on my dry simultaneously. 

2:12pm            Cut is finished and hair looks great.

Total cost:        $20

We have acroyogaed on the 7^th hole (that is not code), I played pictionary in Spanish and guessed a drawing right … and several wrong, drank more wine, and I even cooked a lasagna.  Finally, I have learned how to knit.

Pivotal moments.  I am here in Mexico spending time with a family that has welcomed me with open arms.  Should I be in SE Asia?  My friend and house co-owner Sara once wrote a facebook status that suggested the phrase, “I should have .. ”  be eliminated. 

I come back to that a lot.  Really.  Should we ever really reflect backwards and give energy to what should have been when it wasn’t?  Or do we face forward empowered in authoring our own story?  Just remember, you my dear reader, YOU are holding the pen!  I dare you to make the ink dance.  

“Be careful

Be smart

Do what makes you happy

If it's not making you happy change it.”

~ Sharon Clement