Friday, June 14, 2013

Try Not To Get The Two Tangled Up

It's an easy start to my Friday morning.  It is my day off, so I have the very bare bones of a plan for today.  I am going to meet Tony for breakfast over at Goodies II, then I may circle back home and do some internal cleaning.  I've been feeling an urge to clean my apartment, so today may be that day.  My living room carpet needs to be vacuumed, so I may tackle that today. I may also slip out and catch a movie and practice a spot of pool.  I feel like I am no more than a few hours away from a real breakthrough in my pool game.

Last night, as I lay asleep, I dreamed I was in a tropical forest, near a river, in a village and there was a tremendous rainstorm with the threat of a flood.  The water was pouring down the steep hills in powerful rivulets and the people of the town were trying to find their way to safer ground.  There was a sense of urgency, but not panic. One of the villagers had a jeep that got stuck in the mud on a hillside and he had to abandon it.  As we were walking along the bank of the river, the jeep went floating by.

I woke with the certainty that the jeep was a metaphor for work. It seems like we always have this flood of work coming at us, threatening to overwhelm us.  The movement toward safety is what I need to be careful that I always do, I need to keep my stress guards up.  I think it is probably true with any job, but there are times when your work threatens to swallow you whole and the job itself gains a significance or an importance that it should not have.  In those moments you have to take a deep breath, step back and realize that it is your life that matters, not your job.  Try not to get the two tangled up.

No comments: