the inside and the outside and the action side

Loping up to my 47th birthday on Saturday, I'm thinking about who I am right now and what I'm doing. Luckily I have been receiving a little help from my friends:

the inside
I had my final personal coaching session with Christina yesterday. These sessions have been provided by my employer, as part of a year-long leadership course I have been taking. About once a month I have a telephone or in-person meeting with Christina. Her role as a coach is to help me focus on myself, reflect on what's happening for me - personally, professionally, emotionally, physically, spiritually - whatever I find. We talk about what I want to celebrate, what's provoking me, what I want to accomplish - I get to set the agenda. Her techniques of questioning and acknowledgment help me to figure out for myself how I'm feeling and what I want to do. I feel recognized and encouraged when we talk. Other inside influences on a more ongoing basis: church, loving relationships, journal writing...

the outside
I've got a massage today - also provided by work! The massage therapy students come once a month, and I get to take my lunch break and have a student make me his or her practice patient for an hour. I have been getting some help with my "computer muscles" (upper back, shoulders, neck). It feels good and helps me sit and stand a little taller, and move with more grace. I'm also doing the cycle classes - one yesterday and one tomorrow. Hurtling nowhere fast in a dark room full of other people hurtling nowhere fast is strangely satisfying, and it makes me sweat and my heart roars like a big engine.

the action side
Today is my last morning volunteering at the shelter for this year's program. I've also got the sandwich ministry going on each month, and my work helping to organize Vancouver Poetry House and getting volunteers for the Vancouver Poetry Slam, and my involvement with Shoreline Writers' Society. Then there's my paid work at the recreation centre, and of course, the heart of my world - my family. Every day is filled with stuff I gotta do, and it's good stuff that has meaning and heart-warmingly tangible outcomes. Doing good things with people is what I am meant for.

I think of my birthday as my real new year's day. Usually I start a new year resolution around my birthday time, rather than on January 1. It just seems like a good time to get an early start on adding to my life in some meaningful and constructive way. I'm not sure what I'll do this year. It will come to me. In the meantime I have a couple more days for the inside, the outside and the action side to by just 46.

question: how are your sides?

mompoet - can't believe my sides are awake at 4:30 in the morning