Tuesday Twenty Freewrite FREEDOM!

Done with the teaching portion on Friday!

Done with the paperwork portion on Monday!

Ah, I have a luxurious 20 minutes to freewrite. I plan on doing a lot more of these in the summer since my schedule will be lighter. Actually, my schedule will be a lot lighter in the fall too. 

I am so excited because I am actually DONE, DONE, DONE with the two classes that were my swan song at Oregon State! I finished the last classes on Friday with a fun Stability Ball class followed by a nice final fitness walk with just one of my students who showed up on the last day (most had gotten to just walking it on their own without checking in with me first). We couldn't walk the whole 3.7-mile loop because she only had 50 minutes before her next class, and she walks at a much slower pace than I do, but it was so lovely to walk with her and hear her story. So lovely. That is the thing I will miss, interacting with great young people. I loved the concept of a fitness walking class so I could walk with different people. I got such sweet notes from many of the students about how much they liked me as an instructor. I also got it from several Pilates students. One even got me a gift.

I didn't REALLY finish until yesterday. I had about four hours of work left in grading. I did it throughout the weekend as their final entries came in, but I could not finish until I got reports from the two people who were ill during the term and had to do the Illness and Injury Recovery Pathway. I had never had students need to use this (formerly PAC 100) because I would always work it out with them privately (even the COVID people), but Pilates is something you can do inside during quarantine, but fitness walking is something you cannot do inside. So, I sent three students there, and one student I worked things out with on his own since he was only going to miss the last week of walking because he had worked ahead. I knew he had a previous walk he had done that he had forgotten to upload. So I allowed him to upload that one late, and we called it a day. I had to wait for the final information on one IRP student, and I had to check all his maps and dates, and times. So I entered that all in and was done at 6:27 yesterday (so many things happen that are significant at 27 minutes after the hour for me). 

I am FREE! I had one spiritual direction appointment this morning, but I am free until 1:30 today, and it feels so great to be able to set my schedule rather than having something constantly at the back of my mind that I had to be doing for that job. It seemed like there were more and more things that were pressing on me from it. It was so strange. The work got more and more time-consuming. I calculated that I spend exactly twice as much time grading and teaching the fitness walking class as actually walking with students (the part I most enjoy). It worked out to be 11 dollars an hour, and that didn't include getting there early to class. Pilates was worth it for me though. I had that so streamlined that the paperwork didn't take as much time. 

I know I will teach Pilates again though. I just know it. I love it. I had one student who wanted to know if I had videos, and I have about 20 of them. I just have not uploaded them to YouTube. (Some I cannot for music copyright reasons, but many don't have any music attached to them. So I am uploading them as I type this.)

My desire and directive from seven years ago were to be Salt and Light there. The morning meditation this morning in Pray as You Go was Matthew 5 and being Salt and Light. Then I went to Celtic Morning Prayer, and it was about being Light. I thought that was so cool. 

What this next chapter will hold is so exciting. I am already feeling 100% better. I struggled so much in May, regretting volunteering to take over this class, but I am so glad I did. I learned that I care a lot for students, but sometimes, the most caring thing to do is hold the line so they can learn lessons about responsibility. It was good for me to see this weakness in myself. I grew a ton!

So, Today is a good day. So good. I will go for a nice walk in the sunshine after this freewrite. I will enjoy my books from 1000 Books to Read Before You Die. I will continue to create more content for my spiritual direction ministry. I will dream of what a contemplative cohort would look like with four 30-somethings! I will beef up my "Rule of Life" handout. 

I will just enjoy