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| Taking my journal to a somewhat more public forum. Perhaps there is some exchange of ideas or shared experience. |
| Last night driving home I was struck by an idea for a story. I was traveling from a direction I have never approached home after dark. We have only been in the house 7 months or so and I am very much a creature of habit. To travel home from the direction I was traveling, a left from a highway is required. When I travel from that direction in the daylight I have milestones to plot my location including a particular point at which I move to the left lane and a point where I know the turn is imminent. It was odd doing it in the dark. The markers I use look much different and most are more difficult to see. Not only was the travel different, the moon was incredible. It was the Hunter's moon, just waning from full. I almost thought I should pull the car over for a moment to get a good look. I was trying to watch for my milestones with this giant, orange moon constantly in the corner of my eye. I managed to make the turn on time and then I was home. Our drive is roughly 150 yards from road to house, as I made my way up the driveway, I had the most eerie feeling. For a brief moment it was as if I was the only person left in the world. After parking, I had to just stand there for a moment...listening to the quiet of the evening, staring at that huge moon. Somewhere in there is a story about a woman who follows the moon home and finds herself totally alone. |
| I don’t particularly love my job. It pays well, has good benefits and can be very interesting on most days. When I boil it down, I believe the lack of love is tied up in the nature of a manufacturing facility. A tremendous amount of money (now money and future money) is bound to schedule. This inevitably leads to decisions and behaviors that make work life unpleasant at best. One aspect of the job that I do love is the team that I have built. I have 3 young Quality Engineers on staff that can bring out the very best in me. They are all close in age to my children, they are bright, dedicated and, most important of all funny. And it is the best kind of funny. They get the subtle jokes, they know how to shrug off leadership challenges we face with humor and grace, and they seem to know just when I need a good laugh to get through the day. Today I took a little break from slogging through requisitions and resumes trying to balance my need for team fit with leadership need for filling gaps quickly. I happened upon my little team of engineering professionals. As we talked I mentioned that I was attempting to hire an engineer with the last name of Palm. I made an off-hand reference to the Pan/Pam scene from Step Brothers. Despite the challenges we have faced with production this entire weekend and the workload they are carrying, they launched into their own rendition of that scene if I had only been willing to “tag one of us” into the interview. I left the little meeting happier, with a smile on my face. I am grateful for this little group. I try to recognize their work and give them solid feedback on their performance. I’m not sure they know the extent to which I really do rely on them and how much better they make my day. |
| I journal on, what would appear to the outsider as, a fairly random basis. For those inside my head there would be a very well defined pattern. At a steady state I keep busy; work with solid focus, make traction on hobbies and projects, and make time to write. When I cycle into that manic, frenzied place I have so much energy and drive to accomplish that I am standing in my own way; I make very thorough lists of work tasks that I really want to accomplish, I make zero progress on four or five ongoing projects all at the same time, and I think an awful lot about writing. When the dark place comes, I write and write some more. It seemed worthwhile to find some way to push myself to write in a more consistent way and to write regardless of the mental place I find myself. In some ways, I believe this may even out the flow a bit. Although it is a goal, I don’t believe I can commit to daily input to this journal; I will commit to making it as daily as possible. For each entry, my goal is to write about something that has inspired me on that day. Inspiration can come in so many forms…something for which I am grateful, something that makes me think, somethings that teaches me a lesson or educates me, something that sparks creativity. Thus begins the journey… |
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