The Little Things
October 27, 2014

My college roommate used to say “blessed are the flexible, for they will never be bent out of shape.” For some reason this stuck with me from the first time she said it.

These last two weeks have been a lesson in flexibility for me, as I’ve had a huge amount of extra crises work to do. I want to start out by saying that I am in no way complaining about this, and am so happy to have the job I have, and to do all that I get to do. However, crises work is unpredictable, so while I’ve tried to plan the best that I could, it just didn’t always play out the way I wanted it to.

Blessed Are The Flexible Quote

Take two weeks ago. What was supposed to be a 40 hour week turned into a 70 hour week. Just a little more than planned, right? Everything else I had planned for the week was thrown aside while I dealt with the situation at hand.

Then there was last Wednesday. I was planning to eat lunch from 1-2, see a client from 2-3, do paperwork from 3-4, lift and clean up from 4-5, and see another client from 6-7. That seems nice and simple, right? Well it was, until I had a crisis that started at 12:50. Out went my plans to lift, and I was focused and working until about 7:30 that evening… there was no time for lunch even. While that’s not a feasible situation on a consistent basis, there are times that things pop up, and we just need to adjust.

Or how about the day before (Tuesday)? I was sitting in my office, starting my 2 o’clock appointment, and suddenly the power went out. I don’t have any windows in my office, and there are no windows in the hallway/waiting room, so when the power goes out, it is completely dark. The power flickers from time to time, so we sat in the dark for a minute, waiting to see what would happen. I then lit a candle, and we proceeded to finish the entire session by candle light. My next session was done by candlelight as well. Out went my ability to do notes, as they are all done on the computer, and I need the power and internet to do them. I was flexible, and did what I could.

Candlelight

I’ve made choices to sleep over lifting when I really want to lift, knowing that I need to care well for my body. I’ve thrown my plan for the last two weeks out of the window. I only have one day off from October 12-31st, and while I wouldn’t want to do that all the time, I’ve learned to be flexible in doing the best I can with what I’m given. Sometimes it doesn’t look ideal, and then we have a choice. Do we hold to what we wanted, not be flexible, and get bent out of shape about it? OR, do we shrug our shoulders, adjust to the reality, and bend with the stress so that we don’t break?

Now it’s your turn to share! How do you try to remain flexible when necessary?

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