Swimming Upstream in Down Times

Greetings!

About a month and a half ago I had a lot of spare time on my hands. Work had been almost nonexistent for months, and my family was healthy (i.e. no need to take care of sick children). At that time a random thought came to mind, "What the hay, I'll try blogging. It's a constructive way to spend time, honing my writing skills. I have nothing to lose." Well, wouldn't you know it, the minute I decided to go with the flow and begin my blog, the phone started ringing with jobs! All that time I had been wondering what to do with myself, and now there was too much to do.

I was confronted with one of those laws of nature, that the harder you fight against something, the more resistance you encounter. The minute you change your mindset, then everything seems to fall into place. I will back up a minute and explain that for the past two or three years I have had a lot of career disappointments. (And I know I am one of millions with this affliction right now!) Budget cuts at every corner have made my once sought after job as an English teacher become a dead end. I have applied for more jobs in these past few years than I ever had to in a lifetime, or so it seems. It used to be easy -- I'd apply for a job, and I'd get the job. Alright, it is my turn to eat humble pie!

Besides blogging to keep my mind active, I decided to read myself silly. Last fall, I immersed myself in Victorian literature with "Jane Eyre" (500 pages), "Great Expectations" (500 pages) and Wilkie Collins' "The Woman in White," at a whopping 600pages. I could feel my brain stretch! I also read a New Age book about intuition by Char Margolies, a noted psychic. I found the book to be a bit simplistic and ho hum, but there was one line that resonated for me. She said that sometimes when it seems that though we are doing everything right, our paradoxical karma is "swimming upstream against the universal flow." I am paraphrasing her, but she hit the nail on the head for me. I had been trying and trying and trying, like a salmon swimming upstream, to no avail.

What I took away from Margolies profundity was that I had been trying too hard. I needed to relax my own "great expectations" and come to terms with the fact that getting a job (other than subbing) was not in the cards right now with the economy the way it is. I took another look at what I do and finally saw the cup half full: a flexible job where I can work when I want. No papers to grade. No pressure to meet state standards. Sure, there are some bad(!) days, but overall, as my husband has said to me, "It's not boring." The job certainly keeps me on my toes and is grist for the mill. Perhaps one day I will write a novel about a substitute teacher who goes insane...

Okay, now, Cheryl, calm down.

More and more, I am trying to follow these little mind adjustments and swim where life takes me. Another example of going with the flow, is the noted chef Alice Waters (of Chez Panisse fame, and a pioneer for organically grown food). Alice had been enrolled in Paris' world renowned Sorbonne art school, but ditched class her very first day so she could fully enjoy her baguette with butter and jam. Now that is AWESOME! There she was, all set to take art classes in Paris, and she made a major career detour in an instant! Following her gut, literally, Alice became a tour de force in the food world. A similar story is Julia Child, who also fell in love with French cuisine and just started to follow her natural instincts.

So let's all go to Paris! Oui! Oui! Well, not really -- we have families and jobs and pets and homes and chores -- but it is nice to think that sometimes we need to do something off the cuff, so to speak...go with the universal flow. Many people now are forced to change courses. Layoffs and hard times have made many people, like myself, adjust our ambitions, tighten our purse strings, and rethink our career options. If you have been fighting against something for a long time, and things are not going your way, perhaps it is best to look at the situation with new eyes.

As Alice or Julia might say, I'm offering you some "food" for thought.

Ciao!