New beginning. New focus. New start. New intentions. New results. This how September feels to me. It’s how September has always felt. In part I think it’s the sudden change is seasons that brings on the feelings; where I am, the shift from hot summer to the coolness of fall seems to happen overnight sometimes.
When you have kids, September is also a much more natural demarcation of years than January. Sometimes I think I should just give up measuring time by calendar year and just work with the school years as my annual turning points.
Hello everyone, and welcome back to a new season of Vibe Shifting. As per my usual September routine, today’s post is an update on what’s been happening over the summer, and a sharing of the plan for the next year.
First the personal news…
The biggest thing I’ve been dealing with this summer is that my ex was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer during the first week of July. For those who’ve been with me for a while, you know that this is the same cancer that killed my father back in May of 2013.
It was a summer of frustration and anxiety filled with lots of tests and scans and very little information about what to expect and when his treatments would start. But he will (finally) be starting radiation treatments this week. He’ll also have to have at least two surgeries, the first of which will likely be just before Christmas.
A rocky start to the school year
We told the kids about a week and a half before school started. We had wanted to wait until we knew exactly what we were dealing with, but we also didn’t want to shock them with all of this just as they started a new school year.
I needn’t have worried so much. I was afraid that, remembering what my own father went through, they would be terrified of losing their father, too. But they were so little when my father died, I don’t think they really remember much about that time. They basically said “OK”, and otherwise seem completely unaffected. I don’t think they understand what’s happening at this point and think that perhaps it will be more of an issue when the surgery happens.
So that’s what’s been going on over here. It’s looking like a very… let’s go with “unsettled”… year for everyone. But we will get through it. Any healing thoughts you can send our way would be very much appreciated.
And now for the book news…
In other, and much happier news, I was neck-deep in research for the new book in and around the kids’ activities this summer, and I am super-excited about this one. If I can pull it together the way I see it in my head right now, this is going to be my best one yet. Topic-wise, all I can tell you right now is that it’s going to expand on one of the concepts I touched on in Soul Shifting. 🙂
I’m in what I call my “structural” mode right now – pulling all the different threads together in a coherent pattern and putting together the basic skeleton structure of the book. Basically, it’s figuring out the order in which all the different sub-topics I want to cover need to go.
This is actually one of my favourite parts of writing a new book because you really start to see – and feel – the finished product coming together in a big way. Everything else that happens in the writing process depends on this stage, so maybe that’s why I have so much fun with this part.
The general plan
Given the fact that life as my family knows it is about to get turned completely upside down (again), the rest of the world continues, as it always does. Which means I need to find a way to deal with it all.
The blog must be maintained, the books must be written, the really cool surprise I’ve been tinkering with since last spring (you will love it – details to come later this fall!) has to be completed and launched. So my plan is to become super-organized with the time that I do have this year. I suspect it’s the only way I’m going to be able to maintain my sanity for the duration.
I’m also starting a 100 day fitness challenge soon because I know I’m going to need to be in better shape in order to cope with what’s coming and to be strong enough to be what I need to be for those who are going to need me most this year. (If you’re interested in joining me in that challenge, by the way, please leave a comment below and let me know. If there are enough people who want to start something similar, I’ll put something formal together and we can all whip ourselves into shape together.)
Changes to the Vibe Shifting web site
So those are the personal updates from the summer. Now, for the nitty-gritty technical and content updates to the web site…
Site Navigation Changes.
I’m going to be messing around in the back-end of the site over the coming year. The focus of Vibe Shifting has evolved over the past four years and the original navigation structure no longer works. With well over four hundred posts now, it’s become hard to find things when you need them.
In order to fix this problem, I’ll be streamlining the categories and tags in bits and pieces over the coming months and changing the stuff in the menu bar, so please excuse any 404 errors while that happens. It may be messy for a bit, but it’ll be easier to find everything you’re looking for when I’m done – I promise!
New Topic Areas
I’ve been finding it hard over the past year to find new article ideas to fit into what I do here. After much soul-searching, I discovered that part of the problem is that I’d painted myself into a corner with the focus of the site. I need to push those boundaries a bit and start exploring other areas – other puzzle pieces – that form a part of the picture I’m looking for. And that means expanding the topic areas I write in.
So, as part of the above-mentioned changes, at some point I’ll be adding the categories of “world” and “health” as blog topic areas. I’ve spent most of my life blissfully ignorant of world politics. The 2016 US election made it painfully clear that I can’t do that anymore. Silence, as a wise man once said, only helps the oppressors, and never the victims. So I will, from time to time, be posting my thoughts on world events. If you don’t like that kind of thing, it’ll be easy to just avoid that particular category.
I’ve also had some requests from people for more of what I call my “down the rabbit-hole” articles dealing with the deeper philosophical issues that tie into some of the concepts I deal with here. If there are particular concepts or ideas that you have questions about, please let me know and I’ll add them to my topics list. 🙂
Finally, in the early days of this blog, I used to post more recipes and health-related stuff. (I love to experiment in the kitchen and create new recipes from whatever happens to be on hand.) I’m going to start doing that again over the coming year because health, in all its facets, is an important part of becoming your best self; it is really hard to do the inner work properly if the body you’re in isn’t working well and you feel awful. (Again, if you have particular things you want me to talk about, please let me know!)
Return of the Podcast
After a very long hiatus, I’m pleased to announce that The Vibe Shifting Show podcast is back in business. The first new episode will air next Friday, September 22nd, with new episodes being posted every Friday morning after that.
Looking for the bright spot
So, as you can, there’s definitely lots and lots of stuff going on both on the site and off. As far as the personal stuff goes, I’m still trying to look for the silver lining in all of this. It’s not easy to find something good in this kind of situation, obviously. But I’m going to try and think of it all as an opportunity to cultivate greater discipline and become more productive with whatever time I can find. Here’s to brighter days ahead…
P.S. Don’t forget to let me know if you’re interested in the 100 day fitness challenge!
photo credit: pixabay.com cc (modified by me)
YOU are amazing resilient my friend. I am the son of a four time cancer survivor Nathalie Thompson. Lean on me when you want a boost!
Thanks, Dave — much appreciated. 🙂
Wow, lots of things going on. I wish you and your ex lots of strength and energy. My aunt had that, RIP. It is fierce. I am glad to hear the kids are not so affected.
Great news for the blog, though. The podcasts are great and it is great that you are returning to them. And it is great that you will be branching off to other topics and digging deeper into the Universe, its glory and the way it functions.
Good vibrations to all!
Thanks so much, Kat. 🙂 I’ve got some super-cool things in the works for the podcast coming up later this fall, too. Details to come!