InfinitePossibility
New member
I have not updated this for ages. It was a reasonably stressful summer between one thing and another. I took on extra caring responsibilities, Art had work and family stress, my work was busy and some of my closest friends have been and are going through tough times.
This weekend and last weekend, I have been able to have some much needed alone time with Sausage for company. We have had time and space to rest, do the things we like to do, get some exercise, meet friends for short periods of time, work on writing and on knitting projects. It's all good.
I notice that I am and have been for some time, going through a time in my life of appreciating those sorts of things. Time outside in the fresh air, the colours as the season changes, growing things in my garden, the pleasure of moving my body, time spent talking with people I love or making myself available to give them support and help with their projects.
I feel rich and as if I live a life of luxury and decadence to be able to do these things so freely. I know that I am. I live a life rich beyond the wildest dreams of most people on this planet.
I feel too that community is important and do what I can to nurture it. I have strong boundaries about being busy at work. While I don't mind giving my job a few extra hours if we are busy, I don't expect to ever do more than that. If more is required, I expect more people to be involved. I'm good at giving work to others and I'm reasonably good at providing support so that they can do the new work. I have no wish to be the single, important person that everything depends on.
I have been that person in the past and spent several years fighting it, convincing my bosses that they must get more people involved. The need for that was due to the person who did my job previously to me. That person worked and worked and worked - evenings, weekends. They lost two long term relationships to work and eventually had a breakdown, spending months off sick.
This resulted in a strong expectation that whoever does my job, is the single, important person who puts the hours in and who everybody depends on. Not me. I prefer to be part of a crowd. I don't compete with others and prefer to have a supportive group around me. So that is what I pushed for and kept pushing for until it happened.
So now, I am part of a supportive community at work. When my area becomes swamped with work, we seek additional people to work with us and if that is not enough, we let our customers know that they must wait a bit.
I speak to people and sometimes find it hard now to understand some of them. Chat about things bought - choices of cushions and new furniture or talk about all the places they have seen when they were on holiday. These conversations often seem to have a competitive edge to them.
How people I meet talk about their work too seems odd to me. They'll talk about the necessity of working into the evening, of not having lunch, of how stretched, stressed and upset they are. I sometimes ask what would happen if they just left work or switched off their computer in the evening? Would somebody die? Would their actions result in significant suffering? The answer is usually no, not at all, but if I were just to understand how important the work is, I would see why they must work like that.
I don't understand at all. I see that for people in precarious work situations, they must keep going or risk losing their income and for others, if they leave work somebody probably will die. Most of the people I speak to are not in those situations. Many have permanent, well paid jobs and the only impact of them sticking to the hours they are paid for would be some mild irritation on the part of their customers.
It seems odd to me that people in that position would focus so strongly on work and on buying objects rather than on community and love. Stranger still that people living lives of utter and complete luxury seem so stressed out and anxious about everything. My own opinion is that people are like that because they feel isolated, too busy to be with their loved ones and often needing to be competitive with their colleagues. Also because they feel like they need to have lots of stuff and lots of holiday photos of the right places before they are worthwhile as human beings.
IP
This weekend and last weekend, I have been able to have some much needed alone time with Sausage for company. We have had time and space to rest, do the things we like to do, get some exercise, meet friends for short periods of time, work on writing and on knitting projects. It's all good.
I notice that I am and have been for some time, going through a time in my life of appreciating those sorts of things. Time outside in the fresh air, the colours as the season changes, growing things in my garden, the pleasure of moving my body, time spent talking with people I love or making myself available to give them support and help with their projects.
I feel rich and as if I live a life of luxury and decadence to be able to do these things so freely. I know that I am. I live a life rich beyond the wildest dreams of most people on this planet.
I feel too that community is important and do what I can to nurture it. I have strong boundaries about being busy at work. While I don't mind giving my job a few extra hours if we are busy, I don't expect to ever do more than that. If more is required, I expect more people to be involved. I'm good at giving work to others and I'm reasonably good at providing support so that they can do the new work. I have no wish to be the single, important person that everything depends on.
I have been that person in the past and spent several years fighting it, convincing my bosses that they must get more people involved. The need for that was due to the person who did my job previously to me. That person worked and worked and worked - evenings, weekends. They lost two long term relationships to work and eventually had a breakdown, spending months off sick.
This resulted in a strong expectation that whoever does my job, is the single, important person who puts the hours in and who everybody depends on. Not me. I prefer to be part of a crowd. I don't compete with others and prefer to have a supportive group around me. So that is what I pushed for and kept pushing for until it happened.
So now, I am part of a supportive community at work. When my area becomes swamped with work, we seek additional people to work with us and if that is not enough, we let our customers know that they must wait a bit.
I speak to people and sometimes find it hard now to understand some of them. Chat about things bought - choices of cushions and new furniture or talk about all the places they have seen when they were on holiday. These conversations often seem to have a competitive edge to them.
How people I meet talk about their work too seems odd to me. They'll talk about the necessity of working into the evening, of not having lunch, of how stretched, stressed and upset they are. I sometimes ask what would happen if they just left work or switched off their computer in the evening? Would somebody die? Would their actions result in significant suffering? The answer is usually no, not at all, but if I were just to understand how important the work is, I would see why they must work like that.
I don't understand at all. I see that for people in precarious work situations, they must keep going or risk losing their income and for others, if they leave work somebody probably will die. Most of the people I speak to are not in those situations. Many have permanent, well paid jobs and the only impact of them sticking to the hours they are paid for would be some mild irritation on the part of their customers.
It seems odd to me that people in that position would focus so strongly on work and on buying objects rather than on community and love. Stranger still that people living lives of utter and complete luxury seem so stressed out and anxious about everything. My own opinion is that people are like that because they feel isolated, too busy to be with their loved ones and often needing to be competitive with their colleagues. Also because they feel like they need to have lots of stuff and lots of holiday photos of the right places before they are worthwhile as human beings.
IP