Changing Patterns

Once you’ve figured out what brings you genuine joy, it goes without saying that you should immediately begin filling your life with as much of it as possible. The great thing about this strategy is that it can vastly improve your quality of life almost immediately, without requiring any massive changes. ---from Finding Your Own North Star by Martha Beck

Having a full-time, 40-hour-a-week job has brought to my life a most agreeable pattern. With a glance at my calendar, I know when I’ll be working at the library and when I’ll be off, not only for the month of November, but for all of 2009.

My work-day routine doesn’t vary much, but most every day offers more than enough variety – often of the three-ring circus kind – to keep me on my toes, not to mention highly amused and entertained.

I also value my time off way more than I did during the 20+ years I worked as a freelance fiction writer. Back then, I spent hour upon hour alone in a room with imaginary people, and any day could be – and too often was – a long, lonely day off.

Making the changes necessary to move from my old (unhappy) pattern to my new (fun) pattern was no easy task, but it was definitely worth it.

The current pattern of my life is so much more fulfilling – and much less fraught (see blog posts on Burning Man Traveling Companion and Harley Dude!) – than the old pattern. Still there are times when my days drift along in a yawn-inducing sameness. My fault, I must admit – I like patterns that work for me, and I tend to stick with them. I also know when I’m ready for a little change, though, and so, it seems, does the Universe.

A couple of months ago (pre-Ike), I was talking to my friend Luisa, who is the managing editor of the Tribune Newspapers. She voiced a (near desperate!) need for someone capable of editing the weekly business briefs column and the once-a-month business and real estate page in a timely (able to meet a deadline!) manner. Bouncing ideas back and forth, we quickly realized I could do the job on a part-time basis.

The work – editing and AP-styling submissions from local businesses, event coordinators and marketing reps – takes me two to four (maybe five) hours each week. Luisa e-mails the submissions to me; I edit them Tuesday, Wednesday and/or Thursday evenings; and e-mail the copy back to her. I don’t have to do interviews or write stories. I only have to edit, which is fun and easy for me, and also allows me to keep up my news writing skills. I have a title – Business/Lifestyle Editor – and my name is on the paper’s masthead.

The compensation – that’s been fun and easy for me, too!

Working for the paper full-time, I had really enjoyed the many opportunities I’d had to attend press nights at the theater, local events and fundraisers, and to take an occasional press trip. While I wouldn’t have turned down a few extra dollars each week as payment for my editing, I told Luisa I’d most appreciate being able to do some of the fun stuff again. So we struck a deal, satisfactory to all involved, and the pattern of my life shifted once again.

In the past few weeks, I’ve attended a press night at the Alley Theatre; Diva Night, benefiting the Lone Star College-Kingwood Women’s Endowment Fund and the Humble Area Chamber of Commerce; a gala benefiting the Village Learning and Achievement Center; and the Greater Lake Houston Heart Walk and Heart Fest at Lone Star College (yes, folks, I crawled out of bed at the crack of dawn on a Saturday morning to walk two and a half miles with my pals at the Tribune!).

I’ve had great fun being a part of the Tribune staff again – the kind of fun that balances nicely with the great fun I have working at the Kingwood Branch Library. No massive changes were involved, but the quality (and the pattern!) of my life has most definitely improved in a truly joyful way!