A Lovely Present

I was just given a lovely gift. A monarch butterfly landed on the screen of the window next to my desk. The sunlight is reflecting through its wings, and the window is josteling it gently. The butterlfly is trying to warm herself in the sun, while the deep oranges, orange yellows, and polka dots shimmer in the light. I feel so blessed. How infrequently one is given the opportuntiy to see a live butterfly from the underside so intimately close. I feel lucky that butterflies have deemed me as a healer. They land on me with unusual frequency. But this is truly a new perspective.

Actual News

The following is an excerpt from an email to my favorite cousin. Allow me to preface this by saying that it's almost too good to be true and, while i have known this since monday, i haven't written it down since i am afraid i'll jinx it...

"...after three months of looking and turning down offers that didn't appeal to me, i found [the right job]!

it's almost too good to be true. i'm totally psyched! it's with the fidelity foundation, which is the charitable branch of fidelity investments. there are 15 people there, 4 people in my department, including me, and they donate scads and scads of money to research being done on neurodegenerative diseases, as well as technological advancements, and they sponsor conferences to get these people talking to each other so they can possibly come up with solutions. isn't that cool>!>! and it's all done anonymously. i mean, people know that you can apply to the fidelity foundation for grants, but they do a lot of other work anonymously (like financing gallery openings, educational research, etc). my job will be grant administrator, so half of the job will be making travel arrangements and event planning, and the other half will be processing (reading) all the grant proposals that come through. i can't think of a better way to spend a day in an office. they are all really close, and they are out the door by 5:00 because they've all got families they want to spend time with. they're totally fine with me leaving by 5:00 to teach yoga classes and spend time with daN. YAY! so yes, on top of that, i've got my own office with a big bright window that i can put plants in, and they'll be paying me QUITE well. whew!

i'm so excited! the best is that they all OBVIOUSly love what they get to contribute to every day, and that feels wonderful.

i'm excited! yay good! i start october 30th, and will be taking this coming week off to mentally and emotionally let go of first marblehead and transition into a new full time job. i want to be ready. when i moved from global protection to first marblehead, i didn't give myself that chance, and i really regretted it. i was overwhelmed and simply not ready for a new job yet. especially not one that takes up so much time and energy."

I can hardly believe it. But there it is! A job i am truly excited about and looking forward to. I will be learning all kinds of new things, and that's thrilling in and of itself. I'll be around wonderful people, from what i can tell, and contributing to something i truly believe in. All the while, the Foundation is part of a larger company, so it still has the marvellous benefits. And yet it's in a totally different building from the corporate headquarters, so it's got a completely unique feel. I think i just got the best of both worlds. Maybe they'll even pay for me to get a Master's in Public Policy!

In other news, daN is loving teaching. in fact, he loves everything about being there -- his coworkers, the kids, the curriculum -- except for the commute. it's in foxboro. not close. he spends about three, sometimes four hours a day in the car. to add insult to injury, he hates driving. so we're thinking about moving south of the river and getting a condo (yes, BUYing a condo) in jamaica plain where i could still take the T into downtown to get to work, and he could shave off about an hour or so a day from commuting. that would be a big help. Things are changing again -- changing with the seasons. A move probably wouldn't happen for another few months though, at least. I want to pay a few things down before applying for a home equity line of credit. It helps the credit score. I can't say i didn't learn anything from working in student loans.