Blue Skies, Shining on Me

As of just an hour ago of this writing, TeamRad just finished our annual planning for the coming year. I say “coming year” because over the course of time, it has just organically become the schedule that RadSchool functions on the timeline of a regular college. We do most of our work from September – May, then the summer comes. We do have summer school just like other places of learning, but things are quieter in the summer. I love these planning sessions. They are so fun, creative, and exciting. We bounce things off each other like nerf-balls laughing, having a-ha moments, and brainstorms.

This year’s session took 3 hours. And we were more than a little over-zealous as the planning wound up soaring well past May of 2023 all the way in the spring of 2024 with a secret plan for Autumn of 2024.

To some, that might seem overwhelming, but for me it’s calming. It’s reassuring to me to know what is happening, when, and where. Is it an online class, or do we continue our slow move back into LIVE classes? The answer as you might guess, is some of both. What’s particularly exciting to me is the new lineup of classes for things I’ve not taught before or that I haven’t taught for years. It’s also joyful to see RadSchool start to have a solid structure. This class leads to that class which leads to this certification course, etc. If I use a Christmas metaphor (as I’m known to do) we finally have the tree up so that we can now decorate it with pretty ideas, visions, and a garland of joy. Expanding on that metaphor, I largely have December 2022 off this year. And that makes me very happy.

When I went to write this blog entry, I suddenly heard the song “Blue Skies” in my head. It’s a very old song by Irving Berlin. The lyrics go:

“Blue skies

Smiling at me

Nothing but blue skies

Do I see

Bluebirds

Singing a song

Nothing but bluebirds

All day long

Never saw the sun shining so bright

Never saw things going so right

Noticing the days hurrying by

When you’re in love, my how they fly

Blue days

All of them gone

Nothing but blue skies

From now on

I never saw the sun shining so bright

Never saw things going oh-so right

Noticing the days hurrying by

When you’re in love, my how they fly

Blue days

All of them gone

Nothing but blue skies

From now on”

While being in love is its own bit of happiness, I might change that chorus to be “When you love what you do, my how they fly.” Reinventing the creative ways that you do what you love, that’s truly the definition of “Blue Skies.”

And now I’m going to have that song stuck in my head the rest of the day. Oh well, there are worse things. 🙂

With you on the journey!

~Radleigh