Whoa! What happened?

Has your patience been put to the test!?

If you're wondering where I've been, I did not fall off the trail!
It is just hard to write and run!
We've covered this before. The running...

But, wait up, this has been no ordinary run!

Around the time of my last post, I had stepped into my advising session at the junior college to make sure I was on track for graduation within the next 6 months, and my advisor asked me if I wanted to participate in the graduation ceremony taking place..in ONE WEEK!

What!? Um....YEaaHhhh!??

After a review, it was discovered I was qualified to walk. It took no time to pick up the pace!

Graduates lined up for the ceremony in the college indoor gym track...ready for take-off!

The all-out endurance-sprint i've been on for the past month has taken me from "maybe I'll graduate junior college in 6 months," to blasting full-steam onto the college campus of the University of Kansas.

I entered a maze of applications, name change approval, gathering old vocational school transcripts, financial aid unknowns, advising holds from when I pursued the dream in 2008, and had no idea there would be 8 more years of patience (and many other events) to come...

***

Last month for the first time in my entire life, I donned a cap and gown!
It's a tad addictive.
I like that get-up.

I've never heard a door slam so hard...
The door to the hell I've lived through to get here.
I will never be in that hell again.
Sure, I can have hard times, moving forward, but I will never be living in the reality of that past, ever again.

Education comes in all forms, the least of which, most experienced people probably know, is through college classes, but in our culture it can function like a voice. It says something about dedication, and meaning what you say about a certain thing. Important as classroom learning is, real world application is what counts. Still, a degree is a vehicle that can get you in front of people, to be seen and heard. Or...in front of people to listen, see, and hear others in a transformative way.. College can get you the basics you need, toward the right letters after your name, to get you started in certain fields, like, say, Counseling, for instance!

This might be the first time in my life I'm ready for this.
As I practice listening to myself, I have more confidence in this direction.
I'm ready to listen to, and acknowledge, and love myself, which is actually most important on this trail.

This is an entirely new place, I've never been before. (Are new places becoming a habit?)
The world is rapidly changing and shifting from within me, and around me.
And here I am, showing up.
Facing what it means to respond.

***

There's a lot to catch up on. I feel like a new person.
But, I'm still, or rather, finally, me, again.

I've gathered all parts of my being for this leg.
There might be some stragglers, still on the way,
but I'm here, now, a work in process, being here, getting there.

I haven't figured out how to tell it all. I couldn't, because I don't know it all.
I just know it all. I'm busy living it out, right now.

There's people and trail angels, magic and light, and, above all, Love, that keeps returning to me these days. I can't wait to spread it around.

So...I'm not waiting. (More to share about what's coming, soon. You mean this isn't what's coming soon?) To speak the obvious, there is, of course, so much more happening now, and coming soon for us in this world, and I am influenced by it, but I can't begin to gather it into an update, when it is part of this trail, itself, in many ways.

There is a lot on the horizon.
Possibly, more than I can imagine.
New endings. New beginnings. All unknown. All already in the books, it seems.
All the mixed up, challenging certainty of it.
The endless showing up is what it's about.

More has already evolved.
I'm coming in for a landing, and I will be on the ground on the front-lines again.
Thinking, feeling, and moving on my feet.

You know, when I really settle down into this space, the past month has really been more like a soaring, than a sprint. So, I didn't fall off the trail, I flew off of it!

So much work has gone into getting where I am now, but the past month, things have been a wild coasting. A Going-Somwhere-Important coast, but with grace surrounding me.
There has not been near the struggle I am used to.

(No ordinary run, indeed!)

There is still material to be shed, transformed, and picked up.
I have joined with my soul to do this work.
Discovering everything I can be.