I joined the ADF close to a year ago. I was hoping it would be what I have been seeking for so long and I would finally find "home". I started the DP immediately and haven't regretted a moment. There have been plenty of setbacks over the past year, but I consider them more as roadblocks set by the Gods to help me be sure if this really is what I want. After all, I could have used any of them as a reason to stop. I'm proud to say I have instead used them as moments to step back and look at what I am doing with new eyes granted by the situations. It has been a year of far too many funerals, medical emergencies for myself and others I care about, financial nightmares and stress from directions and people I had never expected.
Here I am at the beginning of a new year. 2016 is a year of great things coming. I am getting married in three and a half months, we are buying a house I have loved for years and making it ours, we are creating the sacred space I have always envisioned right out my back door, and I am finally getting to see some medical specialists I have long needed to hopefully get my health better under control. Along with all this, I WILL complete my DP. It has become far more important to me than I could have imagined.
I am farther behind than I would like, but I will do this. I may not complete it in a year as I had hoped, but I would rather take longer and gain as much as possible from this journey than rush it and miss important stepping stones. I am looking forward to where I go from here. It feels like I am rising from my pause beside the warm fire and bundling up before heading out on the next trek through the woods. I have my sturdy staff, my journal, and supplies. Now off I go with a smile on my face, a nice wind at my back, and an eye on the rising sun!
