Shift

The balance of power amazes me. I’m not talking politics here–far from it, actually, though it all may be applicable in the end. Follow me on this: There are times, when you wait tables, when everything goes wrong. Guests are grumpy, you’re not making any money, the place is short-staffed, morale is down, you’re working entirely too hard and you know it… And then suddenly management hires, not just any lackluster fill-in, but someone, the right someone, and instantly, morale is up, the work is easier, the spoons are back and the coffee’s hot and the ice cream’s cold. You go from everything going wrong–we’re talking layers and layers of wrong that you begin to suspect can never be put right–to watching all that was in the air a moment ago settling in to exactly where it belongs. Oh, you’re still working the same long hours and the grumpy people are still there (aren’t they always?), but the outlook has changed. And it all came down to that one substitution. The entire balance of power simply shifted. That’s what amazes me, that it can be so tenuous as that.

Get the wrong person and it’s nothing but arduous. Sometimes you don’t even notice because you’ve grown so accustomed to arduous. But get the right person, and head–spinning eye-opening change occurs. You’ll wonder what took so long, and in a way, you won’t care so long as it’s finally here.

We spend our time striving for the almighty dollar, reaching that next level, trying to land that big fish, get the corner office and the pot of gold, and these things all come and go, like mile markers on a mountain road. The thing is, the entire thing, is to stop striving for the next change but to be that change, the change that causes such a shift.

That’s all. And it’s everything.

~
Jody Brown is the author of Upside Down Kingdom, and is a blogger, poet, and traveler.

Give Me the Grit

The view above the clouds is marvelous and breathtaking. Air travel allows a person to see that the notion of glory is still there. Some would argue that it’s way above our heads, untouchable, out of reach.

Of course, none of that means we can’t lift our head and look up. And on cloudy days, we simply have to imagine.

The glow of those lofty pink and orange hues and golden light wrap around a person and inspire growth, strength, and other words about large concepts that get tossed around that no one really stops to explain. I won’t illustrate them, either, because they’re beside the point.

For me? There’s a beauty in the grey, the grainy, the grit, all the things that sit under the cloud cover that we wade through daily. Life’s challenges, like the writing of a book, ask that we pay attention, apply diligence to our work, and allow for, at times, constant change.

The view above the clouds reminds us that we can do it. But it’s in the misty undercloud that we get it done.

~
Jody Brown is the author of Upside Down Kingdom, available on Amazon. She’s currently penning her second novel, based on the life of a WWII veteran. For more on her writing projects, or for ways to donate toward their completion, see JodyBrown.com/writing.

Grasshopper in the Wind

Status quo is life as we know it, the present state of affairs, the norm, if you will. And, quite frankly, it can be a bit of a hoodwink.

Despite its stately Latin suit, status quo translates to “the state in which.” This begs the question: It’s the state in which what? What happens? Because just when you grow accustomed to the status quo, it changes. Just when you adapt to the change, it changes again or even reverts back to its original form. Status quo jumps around like a grasshopper in the wind. And we silly humans chase after it, trying to “maintain” it. Whatever it is.

Status quo has adapted to mean different things to different situations. In restaurants and hospitals, status quo is organized chaos. In marketing, it’s keeping things as they are, rather than seeking more. In business, they say it can kill you.

We’ve given status quo a magical and dangerous connotation of being something better or worse than where we are right now. We spend our time trying to reach it, or trying to avoid it. With all this movement, one can’t help but wonder: Is there a present anymore, outside of a yoga class? The concept of status quo is spiraling out of control.

So we go back to the beginning, and look at the Latin. And something becomes obvious: The present state of affairs is now. It’s today. It always was and always will be. Strive for more, or strive for less, but know that now is what we’re given. So make it count. Don’t take for granted that you can fix it tomorrow, or that you can set things right next time. Now is it. And “the state in which” is open ended.

~
Jody Brown is the author of Upside Down Kingdom, and is a multi-blogger, poet, and traveler. Her current writing projects, including her daily blog endeavor, #Project365, can be found at JodyBrown.com/writing. 

The North Wind of Change

The winds have picked up in Pittsburgh this week, with a touch of a North Wind chill in the air. The North Wind is active in mythology for its cold, stormy activity, and is known generally as the bringer of change.

Though we’re told we need to embrace change, it’s a tall order. We strive to have a sense of order and comfort to our daily lives that change is looked upon as a great disturber of the peace.

I think sometimes we get a picture in our minds of how things are going to be, and nothing can move that gaze. As kids we’re told not to let anything get in the way of our goals, so we learn to focus hard. But keeping our eye on the ball doesn’t mean that we stop seeing the ballpark. We see this especially in conversation. Focusing so hard on speaking our mind, we forget to listen to what’s happening around us to know if our comment is even applicable to the conversation. We speak before all the facts are in. Again, the lack of being able to adapt is the culprit. My Dad says, “When you walk into a room full of people, the first person to open his mouth to speak is typically the stupidest person in the room.”

(He has the best proverbs.) As an introvert, my Dad tends to think the world talks entirely too much. His philosophy is, and always has been, to listen and then speak only if necessary.

And we’ve all heard stories about the person climbing the success ladder who kicked, scratched, and clawed to reach the top regardless of who got knocked out of the way. No one sets out wanting to be that guy. Yet, in chasing down our personal goals, we tend to get short sighted and forget that are many ways to reach that goal, not just the one way we’re trying to push through. Take a step back, and look at it from another angle. See the ballpark as well as the ball. Let the details in.

Change, according to Merriam-Webster, is to become different, to become something else. I don’t know about you, but I find that exhilarating.

The winds of change are upon us, my friends. Good or bad, they’re already on their way.

~
Jody Brown is the author of Upside Down Kingdom, and is a multi-blogger, poet, and traveler. Her current writing projects, including her daily blog endeavor, #Project365, can be found at JodyBrown.com/writing.