Unsettling Winds, They Blow

Good Morning Friends,

 

Today is off to an unsettling start, the air quality is awful due to many fires that are burning in CA and Idaho, and we are expecting thunder storms over the next three days. The rain would be great, but for now, it is looking more like dry lightning, which would not be good. Another contributor to the weirdness in the air today is the realization that more communication is not always better. That might sound like, "Yeah, no duh! Sometimes you just need to keep your mouth shut!" Well, Dave has been dealing with a difficult situation at work, and I'm usually of the belief that asking for help is the way to go. I have been encouraging him to go to his superiors and get some help. Well, he finally took my advice and what do you think happened? He not only got nowhere in terms of help/relief, the situation has gotten worse! His boss did not offer help with his workload, he did not offer to get him assistant type help, he told him he was under orders to take an hour lunch and two 15 minute breaks (keeping in mind, he is not getting his work done now as it is), AND he has implemented a new policy that the entire office must stay an hour longer on M-W-F to do physical training. Holy Cow! They added 3 more hours of work on to his work week! So all this boils down to, he is not only where he was when he started in terms of his stress and workload, but now he has even more piled on him. Maybe I should have expected this from the military as it's not a typical employment situation, but I just can't believe people could be so consumed with their power that they can't see when someone is legitimately struggling. Sadly, this makes me think the high number of Soldiers committing suicide may have asked for help to only be turned away or minimally not offered the help they asked for. Dave is not suicidal, but he is really having a tough time and the message he got when he sought help was, "Keep your mouth shut or it will get worse." I don't even know what to say...except I'm inclined to call his commander and give him an earful - can you even imagine what kind of effects that could create? Ugh, I just feel awful about this for Dave, and Mason and I...after all, how can we not feel the effects of an unhappy Dave?

 

On a bright note, Mason is loving the 4th grade. He has a great teacher and loves his school. One of the things we started doing every morning is 5 minutes of a visualization meditation exercise in addition to a locational exercise that helps Mason feel more in the present moment both physically and mentally. I thought he would resist this but it turns out he is totally digging it! He has been getting up early and asking me each day, "Mom, are we going to meditate this morning?" If Mason can learn to use visualization to help create the life he dreams of, what a wonderful gift I will have given him. I'll keep you posted as to if his enthusiasm keeps up or the novelty wears off. So far, so good. I'm thinking it would be good to get Dave in on this morning exercise, heck, it couldn't hurt!

 

Let's get to getting this new week off and running. Just because it started off unsettled, doesn't' mean it has to run the course this way. I tell Mason all the time, "You get to choose how you feel and you are in control of if things are good or bad. It's all in how you look at it and the actions you take to make changes." This is a good time to take my own advice. Have a great week!

 

Kathy