End of the Year Happiness – 2019

The journey into self-love and self-acceptance must begin with self-examination… until you take the journey of self-reflection, it is almost impossible to grow or learn in life. ~ Iyanla Vanzant

So I’m falling prey tonight to what happens to most writers this time of the year, the end of the year review.  Every year has good and bad, and most of the time that comes down to how we choose to perceive things.  So a little walk through the major events of the year.

I got a job

For the first half of 2019 I was wrapping up a year a travel.  I’d returned to the US and was visiting family on the east coast and also spent some time on the ocean down in Alabama.  I nice restful time of daily beach walks, lazy TV watching and gorgeous sunsets.  But it was also time to get back to work.  So I was submitting applications in January and February and then headed back west to California to start the interview process.  This job hunt was the most difficult I’ve ever had, but I’m spoiled, in the past it’s been an offer after every interview.  However this time around, I missed on the first job I interviewed for, or at least I’m pretty sure I have, they never contacted me.  First time I’ve ever been ghosted after interviewing for a job. I then had a frantic two week period where I had interviews set up for four positions.  I did the first three interviews, and was asked back for two final interviews at Skyline College.  After completed the second one I was offered the position I would end up taking, the Dean of Business , Education and Professional Programs.

sunset selfie from my new campus

The job has gone very well.  The faculty and staff I’m working with have been open to my ideas and do a great job with their programs.  That all makes my life a lot easier, I have a great assistant and my relationship with my boss is excellent.  So all in all it’s been a great start to the position.

I’m living near San Francisco

I have always loved San Francisco.  It’s a vibrant city with a lot going on, lot’s of museums, events attractions and generally the weather is pretty good.  Although it’s raining like hell and colder than normal as I write this.  I’m enjoying being a 20 minute BART ride from the city and living here has another benefit.  People visit San Francisco, I’ve had more friends come to visit since I’ve lived here than maybe everywhere else I have lived  combined.  So if you’re rolling through the city by the bay my friends, drop a note.

I’ve been exploring the city a bit and having a good time but there is a lot here to see as well as a lot of hiking trails in the bay area.  I’ve also loved being so close to the ocean and have tried to get to the beach to hike at least once a week.  It’s really fun right now as some storms at sea have been driving 20 foot waves into the coast and soon the gray whale migration will be at it’s peak.

My year in health

Well, it’s been an up and down year.  My aneurysm continues to grow so I’m looking at heart surgery in the next 3-5 years.  I completely ignored my blood sugar while traveling and now I’m paying the price and working to get that back to normal and not doing a great job of it.  But I’ll get there.  In general everything else is that can be good is and I’ve been working out regularly and hiking some, so physically it’s been a good year.

I published my third book

I published my third book this year, another book of poetry, Athena’s Addict.  This was definitely my most personal work and I haven’t done much to publicize it, but I’m happy with the way the book turned out. I’ve been on a pace of a book a year for the last three years and that’s a point of pride for me.

The Ministry of Happiness and Social Media

So this has been the 10th year of the Ministry of Happiness.  This project that I initially thought I would do for a year or so has turned into one of the best things that I’ve ever done.  I’ll write a bigger post later this week, but over the last ten years there have been over 145,000 page views of this blog.  I have over 225 subscribers who receive every single new post.  My social media following has grown to 20,000 followers across my social media platforms.  I’m a tiny fish on the internet, but for a personal passion project I’m damn proud of it.  The blog has helped some folks and in the end, if what I write helps someone than it’s well worth the time and effort I put forth.

My Mental Landscape

One of the more interesting things that happened this year caught me by surprise.  Shortly after arriving at my new home I made a new friend.  She’s a person who I have had some wonderful conversations with.  In talking about our mental landscapes, visualizing your emotional mind as a plain with the the mountains and hills being issues your dealing with, I realized something.  Mine was flat.  I’ve arrived at a point in my life that I was not prepared for and am still adjusting to every day.  I’m not dealing with any big issues, you know, the type of nagging things that you are constantly trying to resolve.  In fact, life is really good.  For the first time in memory I can solely focus on moving forward and that will be the focus of next week’s post.  As always, have a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane