Sometimes that looks like applying for another job after a string of polite nos. Sometimes it looks like coming back to the same draft and changing the opening. Again.

Apparently, this post was determined to make me demonstrate my answer.

What I Brought With Me

In A Collection of Things I’ve Learned to Live By, I told the story of learning to ride a borrowed bicycle. I rolled down a hill, fell into the grass, pushed the bike back up, and tried again. I also wrote about the friend who showed me where to put my fingers on a keyboard. She gave me somewhere to start. The rest came one collect call at a time.

I’ve been thinking about both stories as I learn a new job. I can be stubborn enough to keep trying and still appreciate somebody showing me where to put my fingers.

If you read The Truth Is, I Got Fired Today, you know September brought an ending I hadn’t planned. My husband encouraged me to take the weekend before I began looking for work. He knew it hurt, and I’m glad I listened.

Losing the job was one thing. Losing a friendship in the aftermath hurt in a different way.

She asked how I was doing, and I answered honestly: I felt like I’d been set up to fail. I never heard back. Later, I sent one more message to tell her I’d found a new job. That one went unanswered, too.

I cared about her. I would’ve welcomed an honest conversation, even if she saw things differently. But I’m done trying to have both sides of it.

As for the job, nobody ever told me why I was let go. I came up with enough possible explanations to make a whole list, which, come to think of it, was an awful lot of unpaid work for a job I no longer had.

So I retired from that assignment, too.

Learning the Terrain

After that weekend, looking for work became my work.

Another interview invitation arrived on Saturday, October 17, my eldest son’s thirty-second birthday. I don’t remember ever receiving an interview invitation on a weekend. I was discouraged that day, and I needed that little lift right when it arrived.

On October 22, I accepted an assistant manager position. Other possibilities were still unfolding, and I later withdrew from another hiring process.

After weeks of waiting for someone to choose me again, it felt good to make a choice of my own.

I started October 28. My first day? Horrible. One of our two new fur babies became frighteningly sick, and I was trying to take in a whole new job while my mind was at home. Thankfully, what was wrong was treatable. The two of them deserve their own introduction, and they’ll get one.

The days that followed were better. My manager and coworkers have been welcoming and remarkably understanding. I’ve finished my initial training, and now I’m getting ready to put it to work in a brand-new store. There’ll be more training, of course, and plenty of the kind of learning that happens face to face, when a real person is standing in front of you with a question.

It’s retail with a medical twist, and I’m still surprised by how many hats I get to pull out of the closet: sales, customer service, management, some of what I learned in healthcare, and a whole lot of listening. I’ve managed before. I’ve never worked in this industry. Both things are true when I walk through the door.

I wasn’t sure I’d like it. The pay is a little lower than I was looking for. And here’s the surprise: I think I do like it. I’m looking forward to being my manager’s right hand and seeing what we can do together.

My Capricorn goat is still climbing. She’s just learning the terrain.

My manager is a Pisces, and the coworker who started the same day I did is a Sagittarius. My coworker and I went to Branson for extra training last week and had a wonderful time learning the job and getting to know each other. My Sagittarius moon was quite happy to come along for the ride.

So far, we’ve got a fish, an archer, and a sea-goat. I thought I was joining a retail team. Apparently, I enrolled in mythology.

Our part-time teammate seems lovely, too, and I’m looking forward to working with her more.

The more time I spend with this team, the more I can picture myself staying. The expectations feel fairer, and when there’s something I don’t know, someone actually takes the time to show me. That makes a difference. I hope I’m here for a good long while. Even if this isn’t my last stop, I can already see how it could become one of the most important ones.

A Frame With Room for Me

In The Paradox of the Fixed Frame, I wrote about how the quieter structure of my law-office job made room for habits that mattered to me. Water. Meals. Movement. Writing. In the job that followed, I liked being busy, but I got so invested that I barely had time for any of those things.

I still believe something I wrote while I was looking for work: A job can support the life I am building without becoming the life I am building.

I’m figuring out how to live that with a new schedule. I’m also fifty, menopausal, and increasingly aware that I actually have an age. Apparently, I had been blissfully overlooking that detail.

I gained about ten pounds over a couple of months. After being down 110, I’m still roughly 100 pounds down. Both numbers belong in the story. So does the shirt with flames on it that I begged my father to give me years ago and couldn’t wear. It finally fit for Halloween.

What did I go as?

A hot mess.

After the week I’d had, it required very little acting.

My son put considerably more effort into his costume. He went as Vic Rattlehead from Megadeth and was all decked out to hand out candy. Then it rained, and we got about three trick-or-treaters. Only a couple of people saw the full production, which is why you’re getting a picture.

My son dressed as Vic Rattlehead for Halloween, wearing a dark suit, black bow tie, cream top hat, and a skull mask with hanging chains. — *Vic Rattlehead was ready for a crowd. The rain had other plans.*

The mask is a collector’s item, by the way. At least, that was part of his sales pitch.

And the leftover candy? My family volunteered to help, and trust me, they did. There was still about a pound left after everybody picked through it, so when someone offered to take the rest to donate, I happily said yes.

The candy bowl has officially been relieved of duty.

I want to get back to habits that make me feel good. I can do that and still give myself credit for how far I’ve come. I can also enjoy seeing my kid get excited about Halloween, even if almost nobody showed up.

A Little Wink Along the Way

Of course, QuietQuest and Cerasina come with me. I accepted the offer on the twenty-second, a number that always makes me think of my Little Grandma Rose. The digits in my start date, October 28, 2026, add up to twenty-one, which reduces to three. I like what I associate with three: creativity, communication, and connection.

Did I make it to publication on prompt number three? Clearly not. I’m keeping the wink anyway.

And I still come back to meditation. Sometimes there are colors. Sometimes there’s simply quiet. Either way, sitting down for a few minutes gives me a chance to notice what I’m carrying before I decide what to do with it. Some days that pause is what helps me keep going.

Keep Going

CherryCoBiz has been quieter than I’d like, but there’s plenty happening behind the scenes. I’m still working on CherryCoBiz 2.0. I applied for the Amber Grant again. And SLIVER: The Light Between Us is close to publication.

Good grief, there are hoops.

My professional work helps support our household while I keep building here. I care about getting that balance right because I want to do good work, enjoy the people I come home to, and still have enough of myself left to write.

That second prompt asked for my life philosophy in one sentence. After all these rewrites, I still like the one I found:

To live fully is to constantly unlearn what holds us back, grow gently inside our own skin, and move through the world with intentional tenderness.

There are days when keeping at it means doing the next thing on the list. There are also days when it means taking the weekend, accepting a little help, or admitting the way I’ve been doing something is wearing me out.

I have goals I haven’t reached, habits to rebuild, a job I’m still learning, and a book I’m preparing to release.

My worth doesn’t have to wait for me at the end of that list.

So I keep going. I change my approach when I need to. And when a post takes four writing prompts to make it out into the world?

I publish the dang thing.

What helps you keep going when life doesn’t go the way you planned?