Mid-year review

I am trying to think of how to address all the stuff that has gone on in the past few weeks and maybe it's just best through the filter of my words of the year: compassion and perspective. So here we go, a mid-year review.

First, hockey is on my mind. Duh, right? But here's what's on my mind; I'm not sure if I want to play. *GASP* It's still bobbling, I'm not sure why. I definitely have a LONG way to go, but if I am truly gut-level honest, I feel like its not "mine" anymore, a couple other people picked it up and that takes some of the ... something out of it. So what would I do for activity in the winter? Yoga has been bouncing around in my head for awhile now. I think I am finally through the grief of losing my best Yogi ever and ready to move on.

Second, loss. In the past few weeks two of my favorite guys have left their jobs (which is leaving me!). One retired, one is moving to Arizona. The retiree is one of my all time favorites. He's irreplacable. There is none other. I am really, really happy that he gets to move on, and retire and enjoy his life. He is still physically cabable of anything and mentally he's 100% too. A door opened due to our economical climate here and he walked out it.

The other, Arizona-Man, is near and dear to my heart. We've gone through a lot together, personally and professionally. We fought a few years back about how an incident was handled and it really taught me a lot about handling conflict. A lot. How to listen, how to look at it from their perspective, how to talk about it and not let it fester. He will do well in Arizona. I want to make it a priority to visit him next year some time.

Third, training. We had this fantastic training Monday and Tuesday. The facilitator was the kind of guy that hears what people are saying, asks probing questions, and can deviate from a plan, but bring all the elements together at the end. He was pretty impressive.

The training had to do with strategic planning for our organization. He has met with the board, administration, supervisors and now all the line staff. My understanding is he will put some kind of bow on the package of Who We Are, What We Could Be, and How To Get There and get it back to our administration who will pick and choose what they want and then present some kind of 1-3-5-7-10 year plan to the board. Or so I hope.

One of the things I am finding myself impatient with is aimlessness. No direction? I don't have a lot of time or patience for that. Its a me thing, I get it, and not that I am hell-bent on a direction right now, but even as I am writing this "through the filter of my words for the year" I realize that is how I am doing things more and more. It's been in my nature to find people who are sure of what they want and kind of follow them along, but now I am starting to see that kind of direction in businesses where I shop, in the blogs I read, in my own life. I am chosing things that align with a goal. Financial, personal, professional. The problem is, professionally, I need to know the goal of our organization to see if it fits with my goal. And they don't have one. Yet. Hopefully our facilitator can get us on the right track.

So, all that is on my mind in the midst of knowing our Executive Director is retiring, (notice that didn't make the "loss" section ...), summer vacation time for the kids, massive amounts of overtime coming up along with a shift change (3am shift, here I come Monday!) and having just moved my mom to Oregon. Its been a rough time. But, I am being compassionate (sometimes just with myself) and trying to look at things from every perspective. And, I think I'm doing alright.