Sometimes I don’t slow down long enough to do some things I really want (need) to get done. These are projects–creative and otherwise–that I’d like to make time for, but haven’t yet seemed to get there. I’ve decided that for the moment at least this is simply how things are–part of my new normal. I work relatively hard all day and by the time I get home (my average drive time is somewhere around 75 minutes or so) I am fairly exhausted. It is all I can do to walk the dog, heat up or cook something for myself and eat in front of the television, straighten up the kitchen, then head back to my bedroom to surf the web, write my blog, then go to sleep, not necessarily in that order, but with those main components in place. So I work hard all week and by the time Friday night and Saturday morning roll around I am tired and looking to rest, recuperate, and recover from the week. None of this is conducive to planting my garden, cleaning and organizing my office (there are still about a half dozen or so boxes cluttering up the room and my desktop is a disaster.) And for now, that is the way things are. It’s all good.
I am grateful for a long but good day at work. I am aware of how fortunate I am to be working and doubly fortunate to like and respect many of the people I work with–both on my job and those with whom I’ve worked around the country. That sure helps. So although this week has presented me with a variety of challenges to puzzle and work through on the job, I am taking it all in stride as best I can. These days I am approaching much of what I do with the attitude that I’m doing the best I can and in most cases things have turned out pretty well. I have had my moments of real doubt and angst about the things that were confronting me in my work, but the longer I keep at it, checking in with folks, doing my best, maintaining a positive attitude inasmuch as possible, the better things turn out. That and I pray a lot.
As I got to thinking this evening about how I’ve been approaching my work I began to wonder about the Buddhist principle of “wise effort.” Now, I don’t pretend to have deep knowledge about and practice of Buddhism–I was fortunate to have taken a number of really good classes during my time in the East Bay of California–but a some of what I learned continues to stick with me. So tonight I as I’ve been thinking and writing about my work and the type of energy and attitude I want to bring to what I do, I began to think about “wise effort,” one of the principles found in the Eightfold Noble Path. It was good to review my class notes from the series on the Eightfold Noble Path and to refresh my mind on ideas of what wise or “right” effort looks like, what “right livelihood,” “wise speech,” and the other spokes of the wheel look like. It is helpful to review them and gratifying to see that without consciously focusing on striving to follow the Eightfold Noble Path and other vital Buddhist principles, I appear to be on the path nonetheless. I have a lot to learn on this journey, but it’s nice to know that as I travel along I am incorporating important teachings, life lessons, wisdom from my elders, etc. in the the way I am living out my life. Gratitude is of course part of this, as well as generosity and other related principles and precepts.
I am grateful indeed for right effort and to be applying that and other principles at work. I know I’ll have my days of crankiness and frustration at work; it’s simply a part of the process. I know that much of it is all about the attitude and energy that I bring to everything I do on the job and in the other areas of my life. I will continue to do my best to bring my best to all that I do. May it always be so.
