Been in a handful of crazy the last few days. The city is in a state of emergency, I’m surrounded by fires on all sides. My boss still expects everyone to be at work, yet we’re in an evacuation zone. The fires broke out Monday night and are still taking thousands of firefighters’ and other responders’ time through a predicted date of tomorrow…and here I am.
As I ventured out into the mess that is LA, all I can think is holy shit, life goes on. People are just going about their lives like nothing is happening. Torn between half the people I know saying eh whatever, and the other half sending me apocalyptic messages I’m not quite sure what to do. The city is in fact on fire… welcome to hell.
When things like this happen it tends to change peoples’ perspectives. It’s been playing with mine for sure. I’m starting to see where my real values lie when it comes to work and play. I’ve had to live with the looming thought of, “if forced to evacuate right now what would I take.” The list is definitely shorter than you’d think. Gotta grab the cat. Maybe because it’s an apartment and not a house that I care a little less, but other than the cat, my external harddrives, laptop, DSLR camera and some clothes I could care less what goes up in smoke. Seriously though. As Christmas approaches and we’re sitting here thinking about all the new stuff we want to acquire, I’m surrounded by those who have literally lost everything but each other. How’s that for perspective.
Still riding the waves of a good mood, cutting myself slack on things I know I don’t want to do and allowing myself some fun with the things I do want to do, this timing tends to be humbling to say the least. Amidst looking for a different job, one that I can actually leverage and use to my advantage, one that pays me adequately and one that doesn’t make me feel useless, I’ve noticed that I really don’t have the same attachment to things I once did.
And I don’t really mean material things I mean things in general. Have I finally learned to let go? Or am I finally balanced enough to figure out that ya know what life does go on. Whether you’re up in flames and fleeing for your life or it’s just another day, life goes on. How do you shift and change your world to be what you want it to be? There is the difference. I’m going to take that and run with it while I’m at work and see what I come up with. Time to get creative.
Day 47: Looking forward to new and humble beginnings.
Talking Over the World (formerly Diary of a Tactical Maverick) 