The Calm Following the Storm

 

Wow, have things been busy lately.  Not necessarily bad, just busy.  It's when things get this way that it becomes so hard to see through the storm, and so easy to feel overwhelmed, under appreciated and--well--sorry for ourselves.

To a person, my colleagues feel the same way.  We all feel like we are busier than we have ever been, like we have no time to fit anything in.  For me, this is most evident late in the evening when I am not ready to go to bed, yet unable to switch my brain into another gear.  I don't want to blog, read a book or watch TV, and my usual brain-break hobbies--tying flies, reading, listening to music--seem to have lost their mojo.  Every time I get a small reprieve from the storm I seem to flop down and fall asleep.  I lose focus easily and the fun things become mundane.

But there is hope.

The more times I get caught up into these hurricanes, the more I realize that "this too shall pass".  I know that I have to fight through and continue to challenge my brain because there is always light at the end of the tunnel.  I have even learned that by poking, and pushing, and prodding that I can sometimes break through the dark wall faster.  Ahead of schedule, you might say.

This is a very important realization.  perhaps even more important than the "this too shall pass" mantra we have all heard over and over.  To self-realize that we can craft our day, that we can affect the outcome that we desire, that we can make chicken salad out of...well, you get it.

I sit here, typing away, taking stock of the mess around me and I realize that things are good.  Really good, actually.  Things will get busy again, and that will cause stress but stress is what brings the character out of us;  action out of stress defines us far more than an okey-dokey, summer vacation decision.  So, to any colleagues out there who are feeling overwhelmed, please remember:  this too shall pass (and, more importantly, you are in control of what kind of day that you are having.  If you don't like the way things are going, make the changes that you want to see.).