It appears  that the year has moved at a faster pace this year than any previous year.

Of course that’s nonsense, but it’s the way I perceive it. It’s not my age, nor my mental capabilities it’s the experiences and adventures that have moved so swiftly, one blending into another creating a seamless flow.

I’m a bit of a Pollyanna. I err on the positive, but of course the negative rears its head at times only to be beaten back into submission with an imaginary hammer. It’s when I lay my head down and the darkness envelopes me in a very comforting way that the mind wanders and composes these blogs.

This mornings walk in the dark was about:-

Flexibility.

That’s the key word you need if you live the life I live.  But I chuckle as I reflect on being told “The problem with you is that you are inflexible” by a most inflexible employer earlier this year.

I have to be flexible to be up at 4.00 am preparing to travel for the 64th time this year. Yet another flight and the maneuvering of luggage, the visiting with the Uber driver and the signing in at the check in flight desk.  TSA, lifting heavy hand luggage into the overhead and at times carrying it up and down stairs.

Flexibility

Today, once again I am making the division between family and work. I leave the family behind and my head is in an entirely different space.  In all probability I think the family would like me to be a ‘home’ Mum but my creative being says the nurturing school lunch Mum  happened a long time ago, now it’s my turn.

Flexibility means that I’ve spent the past two days in mental preparation to  anticipate the needs of my students. To make their experience in class, comfortable, achievable and memorable. It means that this year I am sharing my role with my best friend of many years Miss Lisa and we will be able to give the students more attention during class. Tandem teaching.

Flexibility is being able to teach in any situation and this year has been memorable from the well organized classes in wonderful and sometimes luxurious facilities, to the small country hall that I loved. From School classrooms to a massive tent in summer full of huge operating machines in India.

It means I need to be able to work within different cultures,  Mexico, Puerto Rico, Nepal, India, Oman, Dubai, Guatemala, Australian and American.

It also means that I have to divide my work between home and abroad. So I employ a PA to help me when I’m home and to handle any business as I travel.

Flexible one has to be.