Alexandersmap

    Month: November 2024

    • The Start of Something New

      “One is never afraid of the unknown, one is afraid of the known coming to an end.” — Jiddu Krishnamurti

      Last month I left a job I’d been in for 6 1/2 years. It was coming to an end for some time, and the company did me the favor of reminding me that I was an employee at will. I have another job lined up and ready to go in a couple of weeks, so there’s no real underlying stress in the move, more a move from that which I’d grown comfortable with to a move towards something completely different. So it goes. In my mind it was a necessary sabbatical, and the time filled with consequential experiences I might have missed otherwise.

      Ending anything can be hard, especially if the ending wasn’t our choice. We’ve all had our heart broken at some point in our lives. Holding on for dear life isn’t a good look in relationships, in a career, or really with anything we know we must let go of. Still, there’s something exhilarating about starting something entirely new. We learn through all the changes we go through in a lifetime that change in itself is usually for the better. The hard part is letting go of what we once had. Yet it’s still a part of us, isn’t it?

      What is known is comfortable for many (and stale for others). Conversely, what is unknown is either scary or tantalizing, depending on how ready we are for change. Each encounter with the unknown makes us more prepared for the next. In a lifetime of change, we learn that each is simply another step forward for us, even when it may feel like going backwards. Indeed, life is change, ready or not. Why hold on to something simply because it’s comfortable when our time here is so short? Dance with the unknown. Start something new.

    • An Iterative Process

      Across the evening sky
      All the birds are leaving
      But how can they know
      It’s time for them to go?
      Before the winter fire
      I will still be dreaming
      I have no thought of time
      For who knows where the time goes?
      Who knows where the time goes?
      — Fairport Convention, Who Knows Where the Time Goes      ?

      Here we go again. October has flown just like the other months, and we find ourselves in November once again. The oak leaves have completely coated the lawn, just a few days after I picked up the first round of leaves. So it must be, autumn cleanup is an iterative process, not ever one and done unless you wait for Thanksgiving weekend, and there are other chores reserved for that timeframe. I wonder at people who choose a lifestyle with no chores, for the sheer amount of available time they must fill. I suppose I’d just read more or play pickle ball or something. But that’s not for me. There’s beauty in the labor we opt into.

      October was one of my most productive and transformative months of the year in many ways, but it’s all last month’s news now. We must begin again today with whatever momentum yesterday gave to us. Each day brings an opportunity to be fully alive and present, whatever that means to us. My day begins with the keyboard—the first of several habits that steer me towards purposeful and productive living. Today will fly by like all the rest, the only question is what will we remember of it? What will carry us into tomorrow a little better than we arrived at today?

      I’ve been told I dwell on productivity too much, and that may be an ongoing theme of this blog, but productivity means something different to each of us. Productivity to me isn’t giving my life to a job, it’s doing something with my life. Productivity is simply building a system for living that brings positive momentum to our lives. Those grains of sand will keep falling through the hourglass far too quickly for our liking (tempus fugit). We can accept that time is flying by and with our awareness begin to realize our place in eternity. Discovering our purpose is an iterative process too. We may do something meaningful in our given time, built one step at a time.