Okay, I’ve been thinking about what I wrote yesterday and have come to a few conclusions.  The most important thing is that I am decidedly happy to be staying in the same place for an unknown period of time.  I have to get used to that concept, but I like it here, and staying put for a few years doesn’t mean I have to stay for the rest of my life.  It’s not like vines will grow up from my yard and trap me.  (Have you ever seen the movie The Ruins?  A bunch of college students visit an archeological site in Mexico and vines start growing into their bodies.  Things go downhill quickly.  Yuck.  I didn’t want to water my plants for a few days after that.)

I’ve also decided that I spent way too much of the last quarter century mapping out every detail of my life.  Yet, miraculously, I managed to totally avoid thinking beyond age 25.  I guess I imagined that once you find a career, everything else sorts itself into neat little columns and rows.  My columns and rows look more like a Jackson Pollock painting than anything else, so I was somewhat off the mark with that.

[Click on the image above, then on the image at the destination, and it lets you create your own Jackson Pollock-esque painting.  It’s surprisingly fun.]

My new plan, now that there’s a gaping void in front of me, is to plan a whole lot less and approach a few parts of my life more purposefully (prayer is number one on the list, painting is number two… really similar, right?).  That’s it, the entire new life plan in fifteen words.