Year End

Well, it's done and gone. 2006. Yup, what a year. Who coulda' thunk?

I look back on my first year in retirement and new career and find I didn't do too badly, got a number of things started on the new life and career, and that's all anyone can ask at times, to just keep going in some direction we think is right, never knowing the road ahead, what lies around it that will cross its path, or where it will wind and lead. Sometimes you can only just go forward.

And that's what Herminia Ibarra wrote about in Working Identity. It's not about having a specific plan or goals, but the willingness to just think of the many choices and explore them where you find what works. It's a trial and error life we lead, so it's always just one more mistake or success than the other, whether we're going up or down. It's not a zero sum game in the end, but simply playing the game and enjoying it.

To that end it's been an interesting year. I got started in using a real computer (a Mac G5), getting my Website public, focusing on my photography including adding a digital camera system and a 4x5 camera system, both requiring different thought processes, and getting back into life to find it's about the tiime we spend on the journey that matters. It's about the road, the people we met, the things we do, and the joy of going all with the wonder of a child and the wisdom from age.

It was a year of successes, above, and failures. But failures are really successes in disguise, as they say. Really? Not always, sometimes failures are just that, something that didn't work. Ok, scrap that idea and find another. But some failures actually lead to changes in our thinking, perspective, and feeling where it opens new avenues to think and see. You just keeping looking and seeing as you go. You just never know.

I've written about my 2007 plans, and I wish everyone a good new year.