Heart Pounding, I Leap

Clearly I don't mind a bit of double entendre. But just so ya know, the bushes I'm talking about here are the ones within which my next professional steps are concealed. I'm writing about the bushes because tomorrow morning, as soon as I walk into my office, I am going to quit my job.

Except in matters of love, I've never before leaped without being sure of my safety net. I've worked since I was a child, literally. I only recently joined a profession that a professor described as being the province of "risk-averse control freaks." Unemployment should terrify me. Instead, I think this choice will save my sanity and open me up to possibilities far more exhilarating and fulfilling than my current path.

I'm looking for a new and different full-time gig and hoping that the search doesn't take more than 8-12 weeks. (So scary to write down those numbers! I feel I'm tempting fate. . . .) In the meantime, I'm looking forward to:

• rediscovering my body (exercise, cooking vegetables, eating well, sleeping through the night)

• honoring my relationships (a week with Granny Sunshine, games with the chirrens, doing BabyGirl's hair, celebrating & commiserating with friends)

• using my words (writing, protesting, lobbying local politicians)

• loving my 'hood (kicking off the block association, planning neighborhood events, coffee & convos with the neighbors)

• experimenting with other ways of making $$$ (entrepreneurship, contract writing, consulting)

I've got butterflies about tomorrow's announcement and some trepidation about wrapping up my projects responsibly in the two week notice period I've planned. And of course I'm concerned about blowing through my savings if this time without work lasts more than 2-3 months. I'm pretty frugal by nature and will be pinching the pennies so this period of freedom doesn't delay other dreams too significantly. But mostly I'm happy to have finally united my resolve, my courage and my sense of adventure.

Please, please, please wish me luck! And picture pheasants, peacocks, guinea fowl, sweet little partridges, sparrows, songbirds, chickens who've flown the coop -- all wild and happy in the bush. Here I go!