climbing opossums and post-it notes

 Sometimes I complain life doesn't hold enough surprises. Last week broke up the monotony. On Friday, a mass murder of kindergarteners that shakes us briefly out of complacence.

Then, on Sunday, at the opposite end of the spectrum, this opossum clambered up a tree before work.  We stood transfixed by the grotesque and compelling feat.  It was the first time several of my coworkers had seen a live one.  He seemed to be attempting to escape his fate. He was high in a tall oak, getting as far away as possible from the street.  My office is really near uptown, so the opossum was out of his element.

As I settle into this job, I realize that I find cubicles, pale yellow paint, bullet-point facts, and bureaucracy soul crushing.  I don't like being leashed by a computer monitoring system or a headset.  

Then again, I'm realizing I really enjoy talking with (most) people.  I'm learning I enjoy working with words-- I really like composing notes and letters.  It's really fun to come up with ways to state the same information in a more bearable sentence-- we're really about packaging.  I also realize how much I value movement and getting to go outside.  I also like being around young people... but smart people too.  I also really like bright post-it notes.  I go through at least one pack a week.  Related, I really like to write lists and doodle, and I prefer blue pens to black. 

While I'm tripping down Know Thyself lane, I've caught myself clinging to an offhand comment a friend made about learning to accept yourself as you are in your 30's.  As I was in the midst of a really craptastic day, I went on a walk and bought Les Mis.  Life became bearable after the walk and reading 50 pages.  I only snapped one more time after that: a guy had the audacity to assert I had a Master's in education.  So, I need to accept that I like reading, being outside, physical activity, and snap when irritated.  I'm surrounded by people that don't get excited... ever.  Dude, I get excited about post-it notes, first names (Retina and Amiracle), and some of my doodles.  I have a map in my cubicle so that I can figure out where people are-- and I circle the places.  But, the flip-side to being easily excited is that I'm easily upset.  And in accepting my high level of excitability, I can better appreciate the attributes of my colleagues low level excitability.

Life is a collage of the intense and mundane, the esoteric and the everyday.  Navigation is forever tricky.  Life seemed far more manageable when I was 15 years-old.  Instead of applying a wrecking ball to everything I hate, I think I need to listen more, look more, understand more-- some people refer to it as "wisdom".  I listened to Isaiah last week and was struck by God's sovereignty and by the phrase "eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear and hearts that don't understand."

P.S.  So far, Les Mis is fantastic.