A good day

A good day may be when the engine light comes on in your car and the repair is only a thermostat and $150. A good day may also be running into more than one old friend and having the chance to visit. Or it can also be the opportunity to apply for the job of a lifetime. Yesterday I had all three.

Now the job, I realize is a risky thing. The best jobs are competitive and even if you are well versed in the work and have plenty of experience to go with it, there will always be the chance that someone else is better. I know this. Yet the opportunity to seek out what you want and love is an experience as well and should not be missed. It is part of the greatness of opportunity. I once was the one who got the job among over 80 applicants and I will never forget that feeling of accomplishment. I have hope that I will have a chance to be considered for this new position. And if I am I will be ecstatic. If I don't, my path is ahead and I continue to search for that which will make me happy.

Meeting old friends is a pleasure beyond belief. When I was here a little over a year ago trying to decide what to do with myself I met a woman about my age and we hit it off right away. Maybe we don't have so much immediately in common but we communicate in the same way and thus it is a pleasure to be together. By chance I ran into her at, of all places, the laundromat. It was wonderful catching up after a year. She and her husband are buying a house at last and she is excited. That means, however, that the house they have been living in will be available for rent. This would be a much better location for me to live, but I don't know yet what I will be doing next summer. It is perhaps fortuitous that I ran into her on the same day that I found the opportunity to apply for my dream job.

Beyond all these great chance occurrences I stopped to see an old classmate of mine. I find it interesting to talk with people I knew so long ago. We are all so different, with such different experiences of life now. I hope I can reconnect with her more while I am here.

The journey continues

It has been 3 months since I made the decision to leave Spain and return home early because of my foot pain. While I can walk again for long distances I still have the plantar fasciitis that grew so intolerable on the walk. It usually passes overnight now but is a constant reminder of my camino and the friends I met along the way. I also remember and embrace the camino as an opportunity for change and that is one of the important results it had for me. I have finally made my move back to Minnesota as I have dreamed of doing for so many years. And now that I am here I find that I am experiencing a relief of anxieties I did not realize I was suffering from. I no longer need to look over my shoulder to watch my back. It is something akin to being finally free from a self imposed prison created to protect myself from a danger that was for a time, all too real.  And I know now that I have been suffering for many years. This will take a long time to heal.

Today is also the 24th anniversary of the day and date that the most important person in my life passed away. My father died on this day and date in 1988. It takes years before the date falls again on the same day of the week. So today I will celebrate my return to the place my father loved and called God's Country.  It is also, remarkably, the 21st anniversary of my wandering move to the west and now it is the date of my return to the north country where I call my home.  The wind is blowing and snow is in the forecast and to me all is right in the world. Perhaps there are no true coincidences and there is only the right path.