For the Love of...

I listen to friends, family, and co-workers complain incessantly about their jobs. With a smile, I realize that I used to be just like them, full of vitriolic observations about my place of employment, feeling imprisoned because I didn't have an escape route, and I whiled away my work hours daydreaming about vacation.

     My how things have changed! Lol! I no longer complain about my job. In fact, I rarely mention my job outside of the workplace. It no longer has the ability to affect my mood, nor do I take the issues home with me. It's not so much that things have changed as much as it is that I have changed. When a person views their job as an end destination which will slide them into retirement, the job becomes a jail, the hours become shackles, and the years are akin to a long prison sentence.

      Daydreams of vacation used to help me out at my job, but now my vacations are in my budget, no longer daydreams. No, the dangling carrot which gets me through unstressed is that I no longer regard my job as an end destination. It's merely a way-station, a stop on my way through life.

      Another thing which helps the hours speed by is writing. On an average night, my shift might be twelve hours, nine of which are driving. All of the time that I'm driving, I'm outlining plots in my head, maybe sharing them via voice to a file in my phone. I'm thinking of names for characters, which publication a particular story will be submitted to, how many stories are in my vault, how to get better at marketing, thinking of poems to write, and giving myself deadlines to adhere to. My night whizzes by.

      I think that if a person follows their passion, it might change their outlook on their jobs, commuting the prison sentence stuck in their minds. The love of writing has me smiling at situations which once would have had me down. I am grateful for the gift, acknowledging Him. 

      Follow your passions. They have the ability to change everything...