It is such a strange feeling this morning to think that when I go to work today my neighbor will no longer be there. Although I will miss her (at work, anyway - I have my doubts that we'll never see each other again after), I am really pleased for her. Her last day was Friday. She is leaving to re-open her own business, which will be great for her and also provide her with the flexibility to be more available to her teenaged son. Similarly, I know someone else who sold her house to go back to school and devote the rest of her time to writing. I have yet another friend, who is, after years of floating, volunteering at the library in preparation of going back to school to get a Master's in Library Science.
It's so nice to someone grasp for what lights up her soul rather than being held back by fear or societal proclamations of what is a "worthwhile" pursuit. So often we spend too much time trying to do or be what we think is expected that we ignore the callings of our hearts. The truth is that it is okay to not care about power, money, and all of that corporate crap. What is more important is that we find something, somewhere in our lives that we do care about. That might be our work, it might be where we volunteer, it might be what study, it might be our free time, but it must be. So, hooray for those who do what they love. As Paolo Coehlo wrpte in my favorite of his novels (if you've been reading here a while, you know it's The Alchemist), "You'll never be able to escape from your heart. So it's better to listen to what it has to say."
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