What a year!

What a year this has been!
What a wild ride!
I'm ready to start writing again...inspired by my good friend Chester. I've been journaling this whole time, which I'm surprised that I had the time for. But the way I see it, there is a time to live and then there is a time to reflect on the living you've done.
I subscribe to a weekly reflection. When I was younger, it was called the Sabbath. Friday sunset to Saturday sunset. Biblically speaking, that's the time that was set aside for us to rest and connect with the most important people in our lives. A time of inspiration. A time to regroup and visualize the direction that we want to proceed. Although I no longer go to church, or consider myself religious, I still hold fast to this theory. It's important to have a goal and a vision. It's important to sit with that vision and create its existence in your life. And that takes a little time. A little time to just be and really feel it.
I haven't been able to really keep up on those reflections. Not ideally. This last year, with taking my certification classes and teaching, much of me was put to the side. Funny, it was when I needed it the most!
It's been on month since school's let out. One month since I became a licensed teacher. I reflect on the work that it took. I reflect on my accomplishments and my failures. It was all so intense. And now, I sit and listen to what my body is telling me. It's taken me this whole month to feel like myself again. I often think, Holy Shit! How in the hell did I pull that off? But, I did. And so, I smile. My life is forever changed because of all that hard work. I wish I could have been that focused earlier in my life. I wish I would have believed in myself earlier. But, water under the bridge...it happened and that's all that matters.
Now my mind is focused in a new direction. Similar in the way that I need to find a teaching position, but I'm standing on different ground one year later. I've gotten even more tools to use to make the differences that I want in my arena. I understand clearer effectiveness, efficiency, and the overall rhythm that exists. I'm not pretending that I'm going to start going into classrooms and change the whole system...well, not right away. However, I'm prepared now to continue planting seeds. A heartier version of the seeds that I have been planting.
I've got hope. That's what this rest has given me.