This post is about endings and beginnings. My year ended with a surprise – job loss. Right before Christmas. I must admit I wasn’t totally surprised, as there were signs that something was amiss, but I wasn’t ready for this to happen, not yet.

So currently, I am looking for a new job within my field of communication and writing. I don’t want to focus on that, though. I am diligently looking for employment, but scrolling through hundreds of job listings can be draining. To enhance my work-life balance, or in this case job loss balance, I am redeveloping my passion for things outside of my search for employment to help reignite my spark after all of the applications are finished for the day.

Photography and creative writing have become my companions in the midst of my job search. I am also gathering my cookbooks, going to a pottery studio, meditating, and doing yoga. Writing is a way of healing for me, so creating this blog and writing posts about how these activities are helping me to cope with the job search, plus exploring aspects of life balance, wellbeing, and healing will be incredibly helpful.

A recent trip to the Mitchell Park Domes in Milwaukee began this season’s foray into photographing plants and flowers. And thinking, why not, I also picked up an old book from my college days on poetic forms to enrich my language skills, increase my knowledge about the world of poetry, and improve my vocabulary.

Life has handed me this gift basket before. In another lifetime, my former communications position was eliminated at another organization, and it took me a while to find another one. Maybe this is part of the landscape that revolves around this field of endeavor. I will take it all first with a sigh, then a grin, gather my inspiration and focus, and move on.