The Letter, it is written

I finally wrote my good-bye letter for the congregation. After about 4 drafts, I was able to write one that I am happy with. My writing, it isn't so creative, but I can say what I feel pretty well. I think I was able to convey what I wanted to. All that's left now is to prepare for the Cantata, Dec 13th, and to find a someone to play the recorder on Christmas Eve, and someone to sing O Holy Night at the same service. My last one.

I am starting to feel a tremendous sense of relief. It is taking over my feelings of resentment. That is a very good thing.

The amount of stress I am going to have once I leave that job will be diminished significantly. When doing this job, my mind was constantly going, constantly thinking of new and innovative things to do with the choir, with the handbells, with the kids. In September, I was planning for Christmas. In November, I was obsessing about Easter. In January, I was trying to figure out how to make the summer interesting. By the time May rolled around, I was thinking about Christmas. It was nuts. Right now, I would have been looking online for new music for Easter, collaborating with another music director for a special event in February, planning the kids Cantata for the spring. It feels SO GOOD to know that, right now, I don't have to plan for anything.

I do worry about getting "out of shape" with my playing and my directing, but I know that other opportunities will present themselves, and, if not, I have the Community Band that I run to keep me stimulated. And, I will have more time for that once I free up the time I was spending (in my head as well as physically) on the church job.

Life really is getting better and better.

I think my 40's are going to rock.