The last couple of days have been spent reflecting on how the year has gone, the friendships made and those put aside, achievements and disappointments and cleaning the house in preparation for the New Year.
For most of the year, it was a continuation of the year without alcohol. This stretched out to 14 months before I actually had a drink & when I did, I felt so wretched the next day that I decided I would be better off avoiding it again. Of course, just to make sure, I did have another drink or two or more before going back to the alcohol free life! Being alcohol free has challenged others more than me at times. There were times that I felt like I could have had a drink, but I resisted.
The year started with some confusion as acknowledgement of a teaching position didn’t come through officially, but when I phoned the school, I was assured that I was to start at the end of January. Disappointment followed upon finding out that I was to be paid at graduate level as I had not worked in the State Education system. Negotiations continued in the first week as the contract had not been drawn up and eventually I was offered a rate above graduate, but not commensurate with my years of experience. Still, an opportunity to teach in a small school and to put aside some money to continue my education and to pay the rent on my rooms.

Easter came and we made the trek to Heathcote, looking forward to playing in the labyrinths. The weather was great, yet I didn’t do any work on the labyrinths this year, except for a small tidy up. One of the other campers was in an unresourceful state, so after long deliberation, we have decided not to return in 2011- which will break a 20+ year tradition – we will do something different!

In June we headed off to Cape York. I had an uneasy feeling about it before leaving, yet nothing happened on the Cape York part of the trip! It was on the homeward leg from Birdsville to Innaminka that got tricky and took 5 and a bit hours to do about 100km.

Back in Melbourne and a week of NLP. Love it! Goes so well with the Hypnotherapy. Most weeknight evenings were spent online listening to lectures for the Cert 4 of Business & Diploma that I have undertaken. So much information, some challenging and taking up the challenge has been a journey.
New friends through new ventures and a wardrobe restyle for a new look. So much has changed this year. There is the saying “Change your mind, change your life” and this has been so true. The time came to make a decision about teaching and in a way that was made for me, when a child struck out at me and then picked up his chair and came at me. Neither he nor I wanted to be at school at that time and place. Days later my back gave out and I couldn’t walk for a week. The gift was being able to meet with some amazing people and teach some incredible children in that time and have positive memories to take with me.

One door closes and another opens. I’m taking a tiny peek through the door to 2011and loving the feeling of excitement that I’m getting……..