I’m not sure why the picture seems like it goes with this… but hey…it was a breathtaking morning.
It is pager patrol week. It is not my FAVORITE week in the whole month but it is what it is. I could look at it as a gigantic chore and complain the whole time about it. And there are times when I totally hate it… but I choose to look at it a little differently.
On pager week, I get to work with people that, for the most part, I might get to talk to the rest of the time, but I don’t get to work closely with them. During pager week, I get to bring my unique outlook on the world to way more people, my humor, my take on the week. It makes me smile to know that people notice as soon as I take the pager because I get change requests done in record time (for the most part) I try to leave comments in the work order when comments are applicable… I figure why make other people’s lives harder than it needs to be. I get to do different things from my everyday stuff… hey… it is an adventure. Sometimes a pain in the butt adventure but an adventure.
After pager week, I get to take Friday off and get a whole three day weekend with nothing at all to do because I have the hassle of carrying the pager and usually my laptop with me everywhere. Don’t get me wrong… there are many times that I really hate carrying my heavy laptop (like when we go for our 8 or 9 mile weekend walk and I have to carry it in a backpack just in case) everywhere with me… but it is a trade off. And there are times when the added weight helps with the workout.
I have tried looking at my RA kind of the same way… Don’t get me wrong, I have my days… and if you have read many of these brain dumps you know that… but it is what I have to deal with… it could be worse. It means I have to slow my butt down sometimes, which is good. It has meant that I am rethinking my writing career… it means that I have been able to “be there” for someone who is new to this diagnosis and I can help her through her not being able to see the forest for the trees. Over the next few months I know that I will be able to be there for someone else who has been diagnosed very recently but who has not yet realized what limitations it might mean and who hasn’t quite taken the diagnosis to heart. It gave me the perspective I needed to have in my own head when Amandya was diagnosed with Epilepsy.
I’m still trying to view Amandya’s epilepsy in a different light, but when it is your baby, it is not easy to see anything but the stark reality. It has meant that I met one woman who has a daughter new to the diagnosis. It means that I get to be friends with a woman in the cold snowy state of Wyoming… a woman I would never have “met” (even virtually) if it weren’t for epilepsy. I get to be friends with another mother, her daughter and their super dog, Echo.
It is all a matter of perspective… it is all in how you look at it. I could be a miserable person to be around or I could be the best person I can be to be around. Neither gets me personally anything more or less materially… but it means that I get to have some wicked cool friends who are there for me when I have my really crappy days… to prop me up the way I hope I can prop them up. It is all a matter of perspective.
A Figment Of Fitness 