Opening Minds, Awakening Hearts News

Issue 5, March, 2013

Dear Fellow Seeker:

The month of March brings us the early spring, and with it, a sense of unfurling. These are the weeks when the world begins to come out from beneath the cloak of the long nights and short, dark days of winter. We begin to stretch and to venture outside winter's quiet inwardness. For many of us, this natural process is accelerated with the change to daylight savings time. Literally overnight, our days are suddenly longer, our nights, shorter. Our activities pick up quickly. Excitement is in the air.  We eagerly and impatiently embrace the new season; and yet, at first, we may need an interval, an interlude, to adjust and catch up with ourselves. How long that interval needs to last is as individual as we are.

Hello, and welcome to Enrichment Inc.'s fifth seasonal newsletter. My name is Randi Tomchin. In this issue and the next, we'll be exploring interludes of adjustment--how they appear, how we gradually emerge from them and what they teach us. In these special editions of "Spoken from the Heart," we'll focus on a very challenging period of change and adjustment in my own life.

I've learned that by offering accounts of our own individual quests, we can help each other find our way through the labyrinth of difficult times. We remind one another that after every night a new day dawns. And in the clear, inspiring way Mary Anne Radmacher puts it, "As we light a path for others, we naturally light our own way."

Wishing each of you the illumination of new insight as we welcome in the spring.

Love, light and gratitude,

Randi 

P.S. If you haven't reached out yet, please take a moment to stay in touch by joining our mailing list at: Enrichment Inc.  New doors open all the time...let's walk through them together. I'd love to hear from you.

Spoken from the Heart 

Dark Days of the Soul, Part I

Some years ago, I was let go from my job. For the first time in my life, and with almost no warning, I found myself unemployed. No job of any kind. It was a totally new and unfamiliar experience.

I have always been willing to work hard. When I was 12 years old, I babysat nights during the school year and full time in the summer months to earn the extra cash I kept in a box under my bed. In high school I filled jelly doughnuts in a bakery. I started my first real, full-time job at 16. I left my family home to live on my own right after graduation, and since then have never had anyone else helping me make ends meet. There have been periods in my life when I actually worked three or four jobs at once just to pay my expenses.

But now, with no employment for the first time ever, I was suddenly in a position to be able to read, go to the gym, write, meditate and just slow down. I hadn't known that up to then I'd been in a constant state of motion. Looking back, I realized I'd never thought of myself as stressed until I was forced to stop. I started looking for a new position, but also appreciated the gift of some "me" time. 

I just never expected how much unpaid "me" time I was about to be given! Eight months later, although I'd continued to interview and hunt for a job, nothing was clicking. With my long working history, I never expected to have so much trouble finding the right opportunity. And soon the peaceful "me" period ended. I began to worry in earnest! 

Eventually, I'd spent all my savings and was living on my credit cards. When I was nearly at the end of my rope--or so I thought--I was offered a position in Arizona, which I decided to accept. I sold all my furniture and started packing up the rest of my things. I had twenty-five boxes and a blue sand chair ready to go when the job fell through. I did my best to stay calm, but with no money, no furniture and no prospects lined up, my fear and uncertainty became overwhelming. 

I did whatever I could to bring in money: walking dogs, stuffing envelopes--anything I could find. But I was getting deeper and deeper into debt. One week I looked up and found that the girl who'd been making a six-digit salary had gone four days without food. How did I get here? Then came the thing that had been my greatest fear. I was paying as much of my rent as I could, but one day the eviction papers showed up on my door.

And yet, there was even more in store for me. And many lessons left to learn...