Wide open spaces

Picture: Wide open spaces open up my thoughts, inspire me. Today I did a gig at Neethlingshof Wine Estate, just outside Stellenbosch.

Tomorrow heralds the start of my 8th week at home, unemployed. While I’ve used the time to do lots and lots of things, it’s starting to freak me out that, despite having applied for quite a few jobs, I haven’t been called for one interview, and nothing in the formal job market has come my way. Very sobering. Requires of me some serious sitting down and thinking out of the box, as the saying goes.

There’s a lot on my mind, as usual. I understand that this period without a full-time job is a temporary phase, and that, at some stage in the (not-too-distant) future, I’ll be employed again and feeling the security that goes with it. But right now, to be honest, I’m taking some strain.

I count my blessings every day, as part of the Mind Power exercises I do, and I really do feel blessed in many ways. In fact, an awareness that dawned on me, recently, was that life (a complex system containing many sub-systems) could be compared to the human body: if my foot hurts, but everything else is ok, I just need to sort out my foot – everything carries on as usual; no need to get rid of the whole body! Well, right now, ONE aspect of my life is not right – employment – but everything else is really fine. I’m healthy (except for a sore foot, seriously!), I have a gym membership that I’ve been making use of, I have my family, I have a home, my car works most of the time, I have my guitar and music in general, I’ve been doing roughly one paid gig per week, I’ve been working in the garden, making a visible difference, I’ve been uncluttering my house, room by room, I’ve spent time with some amazing friends, I’ve had some incredible conversations over the past 7 weeks, I’ve spent a lot of time with my 11-yr-old daughter and my 80-yr-old mom, I’ve done a lot of jobhunting and applied for some fascinating positions that sounded tailor-made for me, I’ve put together publicity packs for the Rushin-Bosch Duo and started distributing them to some of my dream venues (to be continued this week).

You know what? I have nothing to complain about! I’ve been included in a part-time project for which I’ll be paid, interviewing land claimants for District 6 and I’ve actually been offered a lucrative New Year’s Eve gig.

But more than all of that – I have so much love in my life: a family relationship that’s been in turmoil for most of this year is starting to heal, and I’m fortunate to have an incredibly loving home base. Without going into too much detail, let me just say there’s a huge amount of love in my life.

I will get through this phase.

When I wake up tomorrow morning, some ideas that have been brewing in my subconscious will have started effervescing.

So now……, off to bed!