Blessed Silence

Workout:  too early yet.  Later today.

This is the view from my front door today.  My street is under construction!

I am sitting, drinking coffee, enjoying some soft music and the quiet of a Sunday morning.  There's no agenda today, although there are some errands I want to accomplish before the day is out.  But I'll do these on my time.  Today is all about doing things quietly.  With as little brainpower as possible.

Every week day, I am up early, showered, dressed professionally, and out the door with a bag lunch and gym bag by 7:15am.  When I walk into work, there is a line at my office door. 

My office is two doors down from the President.  He's a brilliant guy.  His brain works five speeds faster than mine, and I'm no slouch (if I do say so myself).  The two guys down the hall also operate at MACH2.  I'm surrounded by serious brain power.  It is a mental challenge every day to keep up intellectually with these folks.

There is a small tech room separating the President and me.  We both have doors that lead into this little room that houses faxes, printers, a mini-mainframe computer and other odds'n'sods.  Pres. chooses to work in the tech room.  Why?  Because he's really chatty.  He's lonely in his big office far away from everyone else.  He talks all day long.  His brain whizzes around at the speed of light and he needs to bounce every idea off someone.  Usually me because I'm closest.  He talks through the door between my office and the tech room.  And if I close the door, he walks down the hall to sit in my office.

Which means that, between the staff needing direction and problem solving, and Pres. who needs feedback on ideas/papers/strategy/proposals, my brain is complete mush by the end of the day.  Picture a bowl of wiggly-wobbly Jello.  Sometimes, going to the gym, with lots of people, music and noisy equipment, is also a tough decision because I need quiet.  What do parents with 3 kids and crazy jobs do?  I can't even imagine.

I am looking forward to Christmas where I will get more than a week of holidays after the festivities.  I resolve to have a very quiet, flow-y, zen week.  Lots of easy mornings with coffee.  Some gentle yoga classes.  A movie or two.  Some reading.  Some quiet evenings with friends over wine. 

I want to get bored.  I've found that the best creativity comes when I'm bored.  I start looking for fun things to do, solutions to problems, and adventures to have.

My question is:  if you have a crazy job, how do you keep some energy for your life?  I like my job;  I just love my life more.