I wanted to let you all know why I am leaving the paper August 11 as a full-time employee. Writing is one of my passions and I have enjoyed working here. Your service to our community makes Lancaster a better place to live. I feel privileged to have enjoyed a peek inside the inner workings. I gained deep satisfaction knowing I was serving the community. I was thrilled when I informed and elated when I inspired. I hope to continue to write on a freelance basis while I pursue another passion.
I will be going to Asheville Yoga Center's therapeutic yoga teacher training September through May. Being a 200 hour-yoga teacher gives me the prerequisites. The next level will allow me to work with people in pain, older people in nursing homes, autoimmune disorders, and even stiff office workers. (Back pain comes from those tight psoas and piriformis muscles that shorten from extended sitting). I will be working with people in small groups and privately in their homes or mine. Yoga is a healing art and I want to help alleviate pain and offer the peace that comes with yoga practice. I have seen faces relax and felt grips soften by just reminding someone to breathe deeply. It's a little like getting the words just right. ;)
Classes are on the weekends so it will allow me to work at a less taxing job while I study and teach yoga in the evenings. I could not give both yoga therapeutic teacher training and The Lancaster News what they each deserve. I refuse to do anything with half a heart.
I'm grateful to have walked some of my journey with you. I will miss this old dusty building, the scent of ink, and feeling the presses run. I'll even miss deadlines and the adrenaline.
My connection to the paper began when I was five years old and my Daddy kept the presses at the Pageland Journal running. Sometimes in the mornings, when I was in grade school, I would call him telling him I was sick so he would pick me up early and take me to work with him. I hung out with the reporters and listened to them debate issues. I loved being there. And I loved being here. Thank you.
I will miss your smiling faces. You are all talented and dedicated, but most of all you are very good people. I'm better to have known each of you and the many people in the community I was honored to interview.
Thank you for filling my heart with love. The neat thing about being a minimalist is that a full heart takes up no more room than an empty one, and it's much easier to carry!
This shared journey is far from over. And besides, it's football season, Lori and I have to represent the women in Robert's Pigskin Picks. :)
Again, I thank you...
Mandy
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| A year's worth of notes - Over twenty notebooks filled |
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