In the Meantime
Another year loses the new. All the changes I’ve hoped to make have not yet happened. But there’s still a little over eleven months to go!
In the meantime, it’s the meantime. That is something to be enjoyed, especially since it is all we have.
And it doesn’t, by the way, need to be a meantime, not in any of the senses of mean. (I am pretty sure that mean here means the inbetween, as in the statistical mean.) But I’d don’t think its so helpful to think of this time as an inbetween, either.
I would note, in this regard, the death of Thich Nhat Hanh, a great Vietnamese buddhist teacher, writer, and poet. I did not realize until today that he had published over one hundred books. One very great one is The Miracle of Mindfulness.
Perhaps because he was a poet, and writer, Thich Nhat Hanh was very good at coming up with sayings. Many are about being in the here and now. A couple I like especially: “Many of us have been running all their lives. Practice stopping.” And another, “There is no way to happiness—happiness is the way.”
In any case, I wish you all a happy now. And I wish Thich Nhat Hanh, with gratitude, a great rest in the ongoing now.
The above is a little owl sketched by me as a draft for a children’s illustration, and the below is a figure drawing from my latest SVA class with Peter Hristoff—this the Vigorous Figure—a program of very quick figure drawings. This is a hard class for me for many reasons (stiffness, lack of skill, poor vision), but it is very rewarding. This one below was my last drawing of our first session – a 15 second sketch. I can’t say I’ve acquired skill, but at least I felt I let some of the stiffness go, and let myself draw a little of the “now” of the beautiful model. Take care.
ManicDDaily 
January 24, 2022 at 11:49 am
Karin, I like your drawings, it might be the child in me that does. Your owl is great, the figure?? I bought my next youngest granddaughter a how-to drawing book, she graduated to the flakey pictures of active people, mostly women, that suggest activity. She had an online page and lead a drawing and poetry group but I forget the name of the site.
I am stuck at the stickman page.
Google probably knows your particulars, I don’t except you aren’t nearly as old as I am. That said, I did an abrupt career change when I was 47, one that didn’t have the stress that came with being a
Senior Aerospace Engineer at the NASA Houston Control Center.
I was moonlighting teaching a couple of evening Business Law classes at a community college here and they offered me three. I said no, I had another life. So then they offered me two daytime classes if I would consider teaching fulltime. Community college class loads here are five classes with no expectation of publishing.
Again I said not as an Adjunct teacher, that I would consider a regular staff position. The board met the next Monday and created another Bussiness position, I interviewed for it on a Tuesday, and was offered a job Wednesday. At that time my JD degree equated a Masters with 39 hours after but fairly soon they, and the whole state of Texas reclassified it to be the same as a PhD. I hadn’t told them I was still looking for a law office or corporate legal job but again soon quit looking.
I have enjoyed teaching and most of my job stress dissapeared. At NASA I could make a mistake that would slip a launch or even lead to the death of an astronaut. At the college if a class would have a problem I might get a chewing but would have the opportunity to do better the next semester. Neither of those ever came close to happening.
Most colleges like having a lawyer for the Business Law classes. I was even offered a job at our Houston Chiropractor College teaching their ethics classes.
So you should be marketable, the pay might not be as high as a legal position. I enjoyed having summers off to travel, we’ve been around the world, visited all 50 states and 74 countries, not counting provences and territories, e.g. Puerto Rico or Nova Scotia and other Canadian provences. I would teach two six week summer classes for travel money and we would travel six weeks.
You might like a career change, I never regretted mine.
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January 25, 2022 at 6:24 am
Jim, thanks for your thoughtful comment. Law is very stressful, but in the end, not like something at Nasa where a life is at stake. The type of law I do usually just has money at stake! I am considering all these things. I really appreciate your thoughtfulness and I am glad that all worked out for you. You were very brave honestly. Take care, k.
January 24, 2022 at 11:51 am
That turned out to be very long, I hope I didn’t bore you too badly. My feelings won’t be hurt if you remove it.
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January 25, 2022 at 6:22 am
Jim, I am flattered that you took the time for such a thoughtful and sweet and helpful and honest comment. Thank you; thanks very much.