Breathe.

Occasionally the Universe reminds me to slow down, breathe, let others be themselves, have patience and wait for what will be revealed. Yesterday was that, and, thankfully, I did much of what the Universe prefers.

Work stuff has been happening everywhere, up to and including a talk with my boss, the CEO, last Tuesday. I listened, even when it was uncomfortable, and approached the situation and myself with love and compassion. The next morning, I asked for mentoring on soft skills, and it was accepted. It's always uncomfortable for me to ask for help, and then I'm never quite sure how to receive it. Growth is always awkward; that's what makes it growth.

Then yesterday there were a ton of closed-door meetings, and the energy was Very Weird Indeed. But, true to form, it wasn't about me, despite my worries. It turns out that the head of my department, an executive director, has decided to radically change her position instead of coming back from maternity leave. I'm thinking this will be positive for her, and am really happy that she can find a work-life balance. As for what happens at work, we will be fine, of course. We will address it and in a year it won't seem to be nearly as big a deal.

We met with a friend last night after work, ostensibly to talk about some stuff for the group we participate with, but ultimately it was just really nice to have the time to share socially. Then we went home, did yoga in the living room and went to sleep. It was the best sleep I have had in months, and I swear that I feel more centered and real. This morning I spent 15 minutes in the sauna before showering and heading to the office. Life is really good.

My partner has another temp-job interview this morning, and I feel very centered and calm. Things seem to be moving forward on the house front, as well, and I'm expecting to have a walk-through this week with the contractor and inspections scheduled for next week.

Keep smiling, and remember to breathe.

Challenge Wrap-up: Bloom

The challenge format was really nice. It allowed me simply to focus on the elements that I wanted to be more attentive to, without getting hung up on the notations and tracking. This is a real difference from where I was in November 2012, when I had NoClueAtAll but I knew how to track stuff. I'm pleased. I like the increased awareness piece and the mindfulness that it promotes and reinforces. Through mindfulness, I am finding a path to increased self-care, self-compassion, and true serenity, both with myself and with others.

• physical: This element saw increases to time in the sauna and meditation, a real ownership of the day's scheduling (including a near ditching of television altogether), and an increase in the regularity of meals. Also, that last week with the heart monitor was sheer force of will, and I'm glad I did it. 
• emotional wellness: This element saw an increase along many fronts: The constant invitations to yet another round of tug-of-war with Vivian's father has lost much of its ability to upset and distract me, and, for this round anyway, was unable to derail me. Also, continued work with my therapist and readings has been huge. I'm not certain exactly what shifted, only that something certainly has, and that I feel more resilient.
• educational balance: This element was challenging, far more so than I expected it would be. I have been very last-minute about the class, and scattered about the independent study. It's time to gather up the edges of my focus on this one. Fortunately, it's a salvageable situation.
• financial fitness: Huge progress, mostly through excising the disease. I retained an attorney, met and did what I was told to do, went to court the first time, and stopped the bleeding.

Success on all fronts. I'm not certain what my next challenge will be, but it will certainly build on what has been established here.

~ o h m ~

I'm really looking forward to picking up yoga in the park again. With all the scheduling changes, it got dropped, but it's long overdue to add it back in, and Friday morning hasn't been the same since I stopped going. I know that it was because Vivian wasn't with me, but I'm looking forward to including her in the Monday evening offering. She has missed it and Bonny has missed having her in class.

I know I wouldn't be able to fit in the health and wellness pieces of my routine if I didn't have such great support from my partner. It really is all about balance.

Full employment and the new economy

A full-employment vision for the twenty-first century can and must look different from the full-employment realities of the postwar era. Nor is the call for full employment necessarily bound up with assumptions about the virtues of work and the vices of idleness.

At the end of The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, John Maynard Keynes surveyed the dire political-economic scene of the mid-1930s and summed it up in a single, incisive phrase: “The outstanding faults of the economic society in which we live are its failure to provide for full employment and its arbitrary and inequitable distribution of wealth and incomes.”

Consider a snapshot of the situation young people face: the unemployment rate for workers under age 25 is 18.1 percent; unemployment for black people who have not graduated from high school is 82.5 percent; the people most likely to be shot by police are black 25–34-year-olds; the national student loan debt has surpassed $1 trillion; and the only jobs lucrative enough to pay off college loans are in the financial industry that detonated our economy or Silicon Valley companies deregulating working-class industries.

The future doesn’t hold much hope either, with median household income declining 12.4 percent between 2000 and 2011. Having a family is simply harder to afford now. Meanwhile, each new year sets another low record for union density, meaning we have few levers for turning those income numbers around. Unlike most wealthy countries, the United States lacks universal childcare and maternity leave, so women are stuck with the same old debates over an impossible work-life balance.

This is an age when the power of the boss is so ascendant over the power of the worker that we can be shuffled around to match precisely the needs of capital. Department stores and retailers now use apps that will inform an employee midway through a workday if their services are no longer needed to match customer demand. About half of early-career hourly workers learn their schedule for the week less than one week in advance. A full day’s work, or a “steady” job, is a thing of the past. This is a chronically unstable way to operate in the world, picking up bits of knowledge work, service work, or manual labor as needed.