Bad For Business

I gave my two weeks notice at my full time job. I had some "temporary" options lined up to fill the gaps in our income, one of which has completely fallen through thanks to the new healthcare law.

For a few moments I wondered if I had made the right decision or if I should turn back and cut my losses (by backing out of the second part time position I'd taken).

The bottom line is that the company culture where I work DOES not fit my personal values and I can do better. People aren't treated well and this theme reverberates throughout my days.

Today I learned of a situation where an "older" male employee continually brushed up against female employees (minors), followed them to their cars, and invited them to his home.

Our "safe to say" telephone line (an "anonymous" tip line that employees can use to report abuse or crime) is a fraud, with phone transcripts/summaries forwarded by email to a department head.

We squabble over "lending" employees to other departments to help for a few hours, because of tight labor budgets.

These things are, I believe, bad for people and bad for business.

I hope, if nothing else, to have learned something more about "cause and effect" and decision-making driven by fear.

So I'm taking a huge leap of faith. What would you do if you weren't afraid?

Mommy FBI

I realized long ago that I wasn't meant for a career in law enforcement. Just a few of the ways that I don't feel "threaded" for this type of work - I am not entirely comfortable around weapons, I don't enjoy running & physical conditioning, and I'm a great big "scardy cat."

Still, I find myself working in this type of environment.

Just the other day I found an ax in my backyard. We hadn't been doing any sort of yard work (given days and days of heavy rain) so I couldn't imagine why it would be sitting in the grass.

I picked it up and put it quickly in a "safe spot" as I rushed off to work.

Later I learned that one of the boys had used my Amazon Prime account to order throwing knives. I found them on the counter, underneath an electric frying pan they'd been using to scramble eggs (on top of a pile of mail).

I pulled one out of the holster and remarked to myself that they were very sharp and very frightening.

I asked the 16-year-old what he was using as a target.

"The old trees in back." (We don't have any "old trees" in back).

I reminded him that we wanted our property to become a Bed & Breakfast some day, rather than a haunted house.

A few days later I noticed a gash in the hand of my seven-year-old. We were at a rock concert and he, sporting a new Mohawk hairdo, was waving his fists and dancing while balancing dangerously on a stadium chair.

"What happened to your hand?" I asked (yelled, over the music).

"The ax," he yelled back.

I now conclude that the ax was being used like the throwing knives against the not-so-old trees in the backyard.

I'm slowly putting together the details of the crime scene.

Lord, please keep us safe from ourselves.

Seasons in the Sun

1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
9 What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?
10 I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.
11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the workthat God maketh from the beginning to the end.
12 I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.
13 And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.

Our Pastor spoke on this section of Ecclesiastes in Sunday School this week. He emphasized that that so often, people are far too RIGID. Their rigidity makes change and movement from season to season more difficult than, perhaps, it needs to be.

God wants us to enjoy every season and to find a way to do good work at whatever stage of life we are in.

I wish that the visits with our “cottage cousins” could even be called seasons, instead of just the few short hours we spend together each year. I so enjoy their company…sunsets, beers around the bonfire, singing songs from "Joseph and The Technicolor Dream Coat."

I'm thinking of them today as they scatter back across the country to the south and to Hawaii.

Crunch Time

I dread the month of August like some people dread the Christmas rush or a visit to the dentist.

It's the beginning of football season and although there are only THREE players in the house this year, there is already a mountain of stinky, sweaty football clothes, random pads and chin guards among the vehicles and furniture, and the banging shut of food cupboards in the middle of the night.

Bad things happen in August.

One year in August I was involved in a full-speed head-on collision (actually, it was late July but the pain and trauma peeked the following month).

Tempers seem shorter in August.

Temperatures are hotter and water is in shorter supply.

The summer semester ends and the Fall semester begins, bringing professional development days and hours of course design work.

It's crunch time again and August 2014 has already seen it's share of stressful situations. For example, my youngest was involved in a typical boy head-to-teeth collision. The other boy lost two teeth while my son caught 100% of the shame and blame. "The bloody wheel gets the oil," I suppose.

A good friend, my mentor at the college, injured her back and can't teach. The college has asked that I take her upper-level courses because I am the only person 1) qualified to do so and 2) that she trusts.

While I wait for a definitive invitation to the subbing position, the teacher's union has to agree to the arrangement and the college has decide on the compensation package.

They chat while I churn over the logistics of two more preps, course design, etc.

Not to mention leaving my full time job.

I'm trying to see these as opportunities under August's perpetual dark cloud.

Sympathy Pains

When my children were (very) small I would find that I would have symptoms similar to their ailments. For example, I would experience a dull ache in my ear whenever they had ear infections. And, most certainly, my heart would ache when I saw them suffer emotionally.

These days I feel a variety of sympathy pains.

One boy was badly burned by the sun. The skin all over his back and shoulders is blistered and bubbled. It oozes and a layer or two comes off each time he removes his clothing. This same boy is "burning the candle at both ends," working full time while shearing sheep, giving lessons, and practicing for this weekend's performances. He is up before the crack of down, and home well after I go to bed at night. I'm exhausted to see him exhausted.

Another boy has had a very discouraging experience at his first job. His employer keeps him walking back and forth in the same position for hours on end. His feet are swollen and covered with blisters and open wounds.

My two Jamaican "daughters" sent money home with Western Union, only to be scammed by the store receiving the money on the Jamaican side. One sends money home to her father, who is caring for her child over the summer while she works at a minimum wage job selling french fries to Americans.

Last night I had a terrible migraine. The pain kept me from sleeping, and I tossed and turned for hours to the sound of the sheep dog barking at deer. The next morning I learned that my dear cousin had fallen into a coma, the result of an undetected brain tumor.

Phil 2:1-4 (Phi) Now if you have known anything of Christ's encouragement and of his reassuring love; if you have known something of the fellowship of his Spirit, and of compassion and deep sympathy, do make my joy complete--live together in harmony, live together in love, as though you had only one mind and spirit between you. Never act from motives of rivalry or personal vanity, but in humility think more of each other than you do of yourselves. None of you should think only of his own affairs, but consider other people's interests also.

On Procrastination - Making Memories NOW

We've made some great summer memories this year and we're only in the second week of July!

I treasure driving around with my 16-year-old son "looking for trouble." We found it in an Indian smoke shop that sells home-made cinnamon rolls the size of a pie plate.

Last weekend the oldest boy and I impulsively wrestled a ginormous blackberry patch behind our old house. We were determined to dig up and transplant some of the healthiest canes in order to get them growing at our new farm. We broke the spade as we dug. So we stopped and ate berries, and ate more berries. And took silly cell-phone pictures of berries.

One night after work I took the children to see a lamb we had donated to a petting zoo. Since we were already near the lake we decided to go to the shore and jump in. Clothes on. The cold lake water felt delicious.

This summer I'm making the most of the fact that I work at an amusement park. We're seeing the shows, splashing in the water park, and visiting the surrounding attractions.

We've made friends with some of the International Students. Even though life is already busy, "fitting in time" for these folks blesses us greatly. I've learned about "Akkee and Fish," the national dish of Jamaica. I also learned that one of the students has a one-year-old son at home. She had to leave him at home with her dad because this was the only work she could find. She works in Food Service at minimum wage.

I'm trying harder to lean in, instead of waiting for a better time to do "such and such." I'm sorting one box per day from our mountain of boxes from the move. And I'm not saving items "for a later date" as has been my custom.

I'm learning to organize and push myself as I've seen my best friend Y (from Japan) do.

She lives every day as if there could be an earthquake tomorrow. Now is the time to "get it done."

Picture Summer - July Photo A Day Challenge

“Summer will end soon enough, and childhood as well.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones