I like sitting with my better half. Being it watching nature unfold in front of us at a park or on a bench on the boardwalk in Ocean City people watching. The relaxed feeling I have when we first sit is great. I usually take a deep breath and exhale slowly and melt into the seat I’m in, sit back and smile and occasionally reach for her hand.
I like the moment I pull out of my driveway on a sunny day with the top down. After reversing out and shifting into first gear I’m becoming part of that bucket seat and that smile comes to my face, I inhale deeply through my nose and exhale as I start to exercise my neck.
You may ask what exercising my neck has to do with driving. Well, I have found that having my head on a swivel is not only good in photography but surviving on the road. It saved me yesterday when a car came into a traffic circle without looking and would have T-boned me on the passenger side and bad because she was coming fast in a big sedan. I hit the brakes hard because I picked up she wasn’t going to yield to me (already in the circle) and sure enough she just went through almost not making the turn to the right out of the circle. Oh yeah, the big surprise on her face as she looked and saw me as she barreled through the circle on Columbia Road and Hemlock Cone Way realizing she had SCREWED UP.
So I took a breath and mumbled a few expletives and relaxed and prepared myself for the next idiot. Of course, driving in this area you don’t have to wait long for another to come around. There is enough to fill a book every day. So driving is actually a good breathing exercise also while at the same time testing your patience.
Anyway, I’m taking a deep breath this afternoon before working another election night. This will be my 23rd (general and mid-term) working at a newspaper. It could be my last one. Time will tell. The years go by fast. At the most, it will be 24. My role has changed several times over the years and even though I still work in a fairly high-stress area (especially when things go south) it’s not as bad as some of my previous roles like being the leader of the group that manages the editorial system or a senior admin in the UNIX group managing most all their systems and storage. Those were pressure-filled times. So I’m going to take that deep breath when the shift starts and enjoy the ride the next week will provide.
I hope you all have a chance to take a breath today. One that refreshes and relaxes. One that brings some calm into the hectic lives we all power through each day.
Random Thoughts of the Day (afternoon edition)
- Spend time making decisions. Just don’t spend time justifying the wrong ones.
- I’m baffled why people spend time on election day standing in lines when early voting with no lines is available.
- All financial decisions are hard. Even the ones you don’t pull the trigger on.
- Sometimes things aren’t as difficult or as important as they seem with a change of perspective.
