Wednesday Vignettes: Dream Jobs and Dark Spots

I want to remember a variety of vignettes, none of them deserving a full blog post of its own.  Let me capture some smaller memories of the past week:

--Last week, I had a phone conversation with a person with an MFA in creative writing.  He was looking for adjunct work; alas, I have nothing to offer.  At one point, he told me he'd looked at my CV on my website.  He said, "You have my dream job."  No one has ever called my administrator job their dream job.  When my job irritates me, I'll pull up that memory and remind myself that I have a dream job.

--Happily, most days it's a dream job of sorts for me too.  I have great colleagues, and that makes a world of difference.  I believe in the value of the classes that I oversee.

--What would be a job more closely aligned to my dreams?  What would be a job that if I applied and I was not chosen, I might cry?  A poet in residence, at a great school, with students who are passionate about writing and spirituality--and students who take it seriously.

--I have a vision of that dream job being at a theology school.  I want to be hired to be part of a rapidly expanding graduate program that looks at the intersection of spirituality and creativity.  My primary responsibility would be to explore writing and spirituality, but I would be required to team teach one class a year with an artist working in a different medium.  Yes, that would be my dream job.

--I've been doing more submitting of poems to journals lately.  What alignment of the stars has made this possible?  I feel content, sending packet after packet out into the world.  I am undistracted, peacefully sitting in my chair, creating all sorts of arrangements of poems.

--Alas, I have been writing fewer new poems in the last month.  Tomorrow, I shall write a poem!  Today I will be on the lookout for a poem that wants to be born in the morning.

--I went to the dermatologist to have a spot looked at.  He said it was probably nothing, but it's only been around for a few years, and lately, it's started changing.  He said, "Let's just take it off."  And zip, zip, just like that, it was gone.

--The dermatologist did say, "Melanoma can present a bit differently in fair skin."  Even before he said that, I'd been feeling a bit of fear.  It's been a tough cancer season for so many.  It will not surprise me if my meaningless spot comes to have a menacing meaning.

--We've had a stretch of gorgeous weather:  hot days with pleasant nights and low humidity.  It's been ferociously breezy.  We've spent most evenings sitting out back by the pool.  It's much better than zoning out in front of the TV.

--Memorial Day week-end approaches, the traditional beginning of summer.  I've begun some of my summer practices and goals already.  I want to swim a half hour in my pool each day--that's in addition to spin class and boot camp class.  I mainly want to swim so that I appreciate my pool.  I also want to drink more veggie juices.  And my ongoing goal:  to be more mindful of what I put in my mouth.

--I'd like to be more mindful of everything.  I'd like that mindfulness to help me cultivate a garden of gratitude.