This afternoon I am facilitating my About You group at an assisted living/nursing facility that contrasts dramatically with the unit where I am employed. Our group, which consists of a core of about eight, and others dropping by, will meditate, share, and this week, discuss Change for the New Year. How can I lead a discussion/circle about change and making peace with it when I continue to exist in various stages of turmoil over the rather dramatic change that I made?

Perhaps I should look at my own words before I go in there and say them. It is common knowledge (isn't it?) that life experience and life change, if separated from the reactive element, can provide answers. You know, the "be still and listen" mantra which for me often comes after an impulsive or reactive jump into a situation.

That is over. O-V-E-R! I will listen to my inner self before I move again, although my physical self is pushing for immediate change. (Sitting down is not an option for on-unit activity people in my day job. In office, well, there is a lot of sitting going on.) It would benefit to meditate about what to do next--jump to a parallel position (hell, no); push to advance in this facility, take a certification course and become a recreation therapist or crawl back to the academic cocoon of the mind (hot maybe). Or persue what I really want, to be a cancer guide.

This afternoon it will be important to listen to my own signals and feelings as well as my group. Will we find truth in stillness? Will we welcome the New Year? Or, will we drink hot chocolate and divert entirely?