A Month from Today

A month from today I drive away to my new life in Indiana. I'll start driving on the morning of August 12 with the goal of arriving in Greencastle, Indiana, the next day in time for a Philosophy Department evening get-together.

One more month!

I'm overwhelmed by all that I need to do between now and then, homesick already for my sweet life here (homesick, and churchsick, and friendsick, and writinggroupsick, and more). And I'm also wild with excitement for the new life that I am envisioning for the coming year that I'll spend as the Frederick Visiting Professor of Ethics at the Prindle Institute of Ethics at DePauw University.

In my thoughts, Indiana has become the promised land, the land of milk and honey. In Indiana, I'll start writing again and I'll write my Newbery Award book AND a stunning adult memoir. In Indiana, I'll become reinvigorated as a philosopher and create a whole new ambitious research program for myself. In Indiana, I'll grow as a writer, teacher, and scholar. Oh, and I'll also eat better meals, and exercise more, and read a ton of books.

I love the weekly newsletter sent out by life-makeover guru Cheryl Richardson. I saved a recent one that was about the importance of changing our location if we want to make major changes in our life situation. She wrote, "When we change our environment, we interrupt the powerful force of unconscious patterns that keep us firmly rooted in failure." And she wrote, "Stop trying to create a breakthrough from within a structure that's set up to support failure."

A month from today, I'm off to a new environment that is going to transform all my unconscious patterns in wonderful ways. Indiana, here I come.