California Dreamin'

Here's the update folks (all those who are reading this blog....)

I've been accepted to an internship program at the University of California - Yes, I am going to California.

It's funny how all these things come to be...

(1) For 2 years now, I have been repeatedly told that I would feel more comfortable given my personality out in the West Coast - preferably anywhere between the borders of Washington state with Canada to Northern California (where I will be)

(2) Recently, as my loved ones and friends know, I have been considering a change in my career direction - I was considering the idea of creating programs that would be beneficial to the well-being of others, rather than simply practice counseling alone. A requirement of this internship program, as their designated behavioral health intern, is that I liaise with university and hospital staff to create "health and wellness" programs for the faculty, staff and students of the University.

(3) In answer to my meditation teacher's surprise when I informed him that I did not consider my mindfulness practice as a component in my search of appropriate internship programs (since he recognizes the benefit my practice has on me, and as he tells me, my ability to share my gains with others), this internship program has, as part of its curricular, that I engage in a mindfulness practice and share it in counseling faculty, staff and students at the University. Thus, my meditation teacher is delighted. In his words, "it's funny how the universe has a way of working things out"

(4) And the burden of making a decision about internship, etc., has been lifted. The truth of the matter is - it is 1 year. And, once this 1 year is accomplished (August 1 2011 - July 30 2012), the next chapter of my life will begin.

Yet, the most important thing I have learned this past month.... is the experience of LOVE truly.

Where I always understood the saying ,"friend in need is a friend indeed," I now can appreciate the saying "in order to feel love, we must allow ourselves to feel pain, and still know what it means to feel safe."

It has been an emotional roller-coaster of a month, but today, I smile. I hung on. I am here. I am happy.



The Runaways - How Can I Resist?!