Blog: Beginning Adjustments

Hello!

I am so blessed with so many things: things are going well for work--I have a great mentor who is walking me through the process of learning management skills, and if all goes well I may become a candidate to run a park store all by myself next summer if I don't become a park ranger by then. For now though, I've been doing some extra reading and study on the side to help improve my skills.

Beyond this, with school finished, I've been taking a lot of time doing some online courses continuing to improve my education towards becoming an interpretive park ranger. This has been a lot of learning, but it has helped me greatly in learning how to connect with people and understand how to make presentations in ways that are inspiring, relevant, and connective. This has also taught me a lot towards how I can better minister to others as many of the principles in interpretive speaking carry over to how I can help people make spiritual connections within a physical world too. That said, this has taken up a lot of time.

In the midst of this, there is also daily leisure readings--starting to crack open all those books that have been sitting on the shelf for all these years of school. It's so great to finally get to delve into these books and absorb their words. Then there's the community I am now a part of--as I approach my first month here in Yellowstone, I am getting acquainted with the crew here at the Upper Old Faithful General Store. This is such a great group of people. I am getting to swap a lot of stories and laughs with everyone. More people are arriving soon which will help us, as we've been short-staffed since the start of the season. It's a lot of work trying to help all of our customers during this stage of the season. Getting more employees will be helpful, and it will mean more people to spend time with.

On top of this, there's also exploring the park and practicing my photography!

In the midst of all this, I keep wondering to myself: how am I going to make sure there's enough time for my weekly blog postings? It's normal for writers to discipline themselves to daily periods of writing and writing development. There are regular deadlines to meet. This is normal, but I fear that right now as I am leaving school behind, there are a few other priorities that I have been focusing on towards developing a practical career in the midst of pursuing my ultimate goal of writing.

When I started my blog for the season, I recognized that this blog will also be transitioning as I attempt to develop it into something much more than simply a weekly report on my travel activity, with hopefully a spiritual application for the week. I am realizing that I am in a stage of personal development in which those lessons I am learning are not fully developed to present as a completed post. I am wanting to write, revise, learn, and add perspective in order to present those stories and messages that really resonate with others. Such attempts require time and patience.

So for now, I have come to the decision that I'm going to back away from my weekly reports on this blog, posting every second week instead, allowing time for me to practice writing a lot more and much more revision than I currently allow. I still intend to continue this blog, but during this transition, I ask for your flexibility so that I can develop this blog into its next stage. Through prayer and submitting this to God, I hope that this move will help this blog to advance and become a richer blessing to my readers.

Thank you for your listening ear and your support. I look forward to many more posts ahead.