break out

It has occurred to me that most of my life is played out within a very small space.

No, I'm not referring to my house... we have a very adequate, comfortable home... I'm talking about the geographical pond I puddle around in.

The hospital I work in sits less than 2km away. If I need fruit and vegetables the store is another 400 metres away. The butcher is a further 1/2 km beyond that and my favourite Indian store is a few steps across the road from there. Our church is across the park from the butcher, the beautician is two blocks away from the park and a big trip is when I visit the supermarket three kilometres in the other direction from our house or go to aqua aerobics one block beyond that or have a violin lesson about six kilometres from home.

As I said, small world. Which I love, because I figure I'm contributing less to greenhouse gases, leaving a smaller carbon footprint than the average person and developing a feel for the local community.

Yesterday however, I broke out of my 6 square kilometre world and drove to Longford, a small town about twenty minutes drive from here. Yeah, yeah, it was big and far and scary. Ah. Not.

Anyway, I went to a school chaplain information day (thankyou to my boss Helen for letting me swap at short notice and my friend Denise for filling in for me) and found out about all sorts of things I might be able to do as a chaplain. It was good. I loved the drive (it's so pretty out there) and I'm even more excited (and daunted) about the possibility of being a chaplain.

To cap it all off, even though I was back puddling in the zone today, I received my first invitation to formally apply to a primary school! (My name has been forwarded to 10 or so schools) How cool is that?!

OK, I'm off to address the selection criteria... and believe me, school selection criteria are completely different from anything I've ever addressed in nursing! And no matter that I live a small life in a small space - I've got big plans for the future!