Mid-June update: Travel and time

A mid-June update seems most appropriate for the title of this post. I am in disbelief that we have reached the 20th of June already. I actually looked in my diary last night for a date and I shocked myself by thinking I was looking at the wrong month when I saw June. I then realised that it is indeed June. We are in June. June is now. Do we ever stop looking at the time and being surprised at the slow or fast passing of it? Do we ever stop looking at the calender at the day of the week and feel in wonder at the mysteriousness of the illusion of one day disguised as the next? Convinced we are living in tomorrow when actually it's yesterday. Do we ever stop being surprised at how quickly the years pass by as the numbers change from one to the next? That moment of writing the date and feeling that you are writing as if you have travelled to the future and it's not really the year 2014, it is in fact still 1997 and you're still dancing to the Spice Girls dressing up for the school disco and naively applying your best friend's mum's lipstick with all the elegance and grace a pre-adolescent child can muster, feeling so grown-up, mischievous and alive that it feels that time will stop forever, but time is not even a problem, because you will live forever. You have not yet experienced the race or the cruelness of time.

My supervisor must have thought me a little insane as my internal conversation was voiced on the phone. Anyway, the point is, is that we are over half way through June and so much is happening so very quickly. If I were to write this post a couple of days ago, I would have written something entirely different. I might have written something about the frustrations of waiting; waiting for essays to be marked, waiting for phone calls, emails, confirmations... But the frustration and impatience never lasts for long. Nothing lasts forever. I am fortunate really, that my life is anything but predictable and monotonous. It teaches me that no amount of preparation will ever truly prepare me, so I might as well fill time with the things that matter and trust that I will do what I need to do. It all sounds ever so vague, but I am following my own train of thought here. It does not often make sense at 1.30am on a Friday morning!

The past couple of weeks have seen my last students (but one) disappear from my schedule now their exams are finished. We said our goodbyes and good lucks, and I now have a little more time in the evenings. I have been able to see a couple of friends, and go to the theatre and dinner again, this time as a birthday treat for my sister. In addition, I have been able to fill with some evenings with my love for running and chasing sun sets for the first time in five months. I had been feeling so tired, probably due to actual physical and mental tiredness, but I know that exercise does help, and it is sad when life gets so busy that there is no time left in the week for a short 30 minute run. Fortunately now my only commitments are to my one student, my clients, my research, and my last assignment, I do have some time to focus on my fitness. It has been surprisingly easy on my body to get back into the swing of things too. This being said, my commitments are still somewhat wide-spread!

I will be taking a month out of the country in Barcelona very soon - to model and to take some research with me so I can continue with work even though I'll be out of the country. England is beautiful, but I am ready to take flight for a short while and embrace Spanish living. It is easy to conclude that the universe is providing some very good things this week; good and vast in quantity. I have a lot to do before leaving for Spain; we have a busy week or so of research interviews and I have a ridiculously sizable client practice file to complete and submit before I leave, and clients and students to see and temporarily say goodbye too. The next of our research interviews is tomorrow morning, and it is something quite special to be meeting people and listening to stories that matter. Perhaps stories that have not been shared before, or stories that only make sense to that person in their life, in the way they have structured their character and their being. It is really quite moving to listen to a story being shared. So although there is a lot of work to do, none of it I despise.