Tonight I am both surprised and grateful that it is Friday and the weekend is here. I continue to be amazed that work weeks shortened by a Monday holiday, as was true this week somehow manage to feel just as long as a regular five-day work week. I am no less tired today than I would have been had I worked instead of had Monday off. Nevertheless, I find myself grateful to be at the end of another week.
I was talking with a friend the other day about winning the lottery and what we each would do if we were to win a big payoff. “I would quit my job immediately,” she responded without hesitation, “In fact I wouldn’t even go back in there, I’d pay someone to pack up the artwork and my personal possessions and have them shipped to me.” Today I was thinking about that and decided that I wouldn’t quit my current job right away. There have definitely been other jobs where, like my friend, I would have quit in a heartbeat without a second look back. Not so much with my current job, however, which surprises me a little. I just started my position little over three months ago and have begun to get into a rhythm there. I have a vision for where I think we can go and would like to be able to see how far we can take it in the months ahead. And although there are definitely issues that have already been frustrating, I like the people I work with and the work I’m doing enough that, should I win the lottery, I would want to stay there for at least a while to launch some of the ideas I have that right now exist only in my head or scribbled out in a mind map or chart on a piece of scratch paper. I feel a sense of responsibility to the people I work with to continue what we’ve only just started.
I am grateful to be working; there was a time not too long ago when I felt like I wasn’t going to find a position at all and certainly not one that was a good fit for me. I am still amazed at how circumstances unfolded to bring me where I am right now and I look forward to seeing where this is going to take me. While I must admit that winning the lottery would be great (it would be nice to not have to work for a living) I think for a time I would stick with what I’m doing, at least for a while. I am grateful for the people I work with and the good work we’re trying to do in the world. Wherever I go and whatever I end up doing with my life I want it to make a difference in and have an impact on the world, making it a more loving, compassionate, all-embracing place where everyone has an opportunity to be their best selves and do what they are put on the planet to do. I can’t imagine it getting too much better than that.
So for now I have not won the lottery and have to, like most folks I know, work to live. And on a long, short week like this week just past, it’ll be good to take the break and rest until beginning it all ove again on Monday. I am grateful to be working and am grateful for the break this weekend (though I have to get some work done before Monday.) I reckon it will all balance out in the end.
