Life Lessons from Little Things

I don’t know about you, but I’ve worked in some pretty interesting places.  Some were great-interesting, some were awful-interesting, and some were just interesting. Enter the call center. If you’ve never worked in one, this may be a bit of an eye-opener as you’ve undoubtedly called one at some point.   And if you’re worked in one?   Well, some of this may be familiar, though not identical.  I wound up in a call center quite by accident, and not in any kind of positive way.   After what seemed like an endless string of unwanted life-changing incidents, I handed the keys to my fledgling business back to my silent partner.   He wanted his money back suddenly, and I lacked both the money and the means to get it.   Within a week, I’d spoken to a friend who had a new job in a nearby town, gotten an interview, and was starting the following Monday.  There were a few other options.   Another friend worked in a factory in a different nearby town, and offered to carpool if I’d like to g

Warning labels appear on some of the strangest things, don’t they?  And some of the labels can really make you wonder just what happened to prompt its addition.  Others just seem funny.  If you had a warning label, what would it say?   Would it warn others of your crazy sense of humour?   Might it say “explodes without warning”?   Or “mess with me, you mess with my big sister”? To me, warning labels have always seemed to be a way of stating the obvious – or at least they were until I saw some that made less sense.   Perhaps warning labels are in fact warnings for those who choose to defy limits. Understand, now, that I’d typically put myself in that category.  I have a tendency to question and test rules, and don’t always do well in the “blind follower” line of work.  I want to know why a rule exists, and why I need to follow it. (Please do be aware that this doesn’t apply to eating floor mats, holding the wrong end of a chainsaw, or blow-drying my hair while asleep.) While t

There are people who enjoy looking in mirrors.  In fact, if the volume of selfies on my Facebook news feed is any indication, there are a lot of them.  I’m not one.  My selfies exist only so my daughter can comment on my wardrobe choices, and they’re few and far between.  These photos NEVER make it to Facebook (or anywhere else). There’s key bonus to all of these selfies, and to the whole mirror concept, though.   I often say that we perceive through the lens of our own experience.   That applies to ourselves as well – both inside and out.   And by sharing themselves with the world-at-large, these brave souls have the opportunity to receive feedback.   In my grown-up universe, that’s largely positive – or it is within the public comments.   So the reward for selfies is acclamation?   It looks that way in my universe.   I’m still not about to become a keen selfie-shooter, though.   Now, the mirror.   It’s a whole different kind of reflection than that we receive from others.   If

It was always the same girl who won.   She was just who you’d expect - you know, the pretty and popular cheerleader type who seemed to naturally thrive in the limelight.   And at 12, she’d already been a Crusader for years.   (For those who don’t know, Crusaders is a church program similar to guides/scouts). I was a late joiner at 12 years old, and while I approached the many projects, badges and assignments with my usual gusto, I didn’t even think about winning an award.   Of course, I didn’t know about its existence until just before the end of the year. It wouldn’t have mattered if I’d known sooner.   I was already busy looking for new badges to earn in my over-achiever way, and even once I knew of the award, I knew I couldn’t really have increased my own achievements. I also knew it wouldn’t matter.   After all, the same girl won the award every single year .   And she was, well, you know, the winning type.   The person I never was, no matter what I achieved.   The one who wa

Over the past year or so, I’ve grown to greatly enjoy and  admire  Nathan W. Pyle ’s  webcomics .  Not just because they often feature cats – though I enjoy that – but because I feel like they dissect life in a unique and amusing way which affects the way I think. One of the things it makes me think about is whether we simply make life too complicated.   We don’t look at the simple things.   At face value.   We’re so busy reading into things and looking for hidden meanings or fancy ways to express ourselves that we sometimes miss the obvious. The first webcomic shown is one of my favourites.   Again, not just because there’s a cat.   But I love the fact that it reminds me that I can look for and enjoy my favourite things, while still being cautious of the death blades that accompany them.   There are so many things in life that come with “a twist”, aren’t there?   That new job which requires a move to another town and perhaps some unhappy children.   The inheritance which paid of

Have you ever noticed that when we give, it’s so often out of our own interest?  Don’t get me wrong, giving is good no matter its source.   If I’m in the mood to give music and play the piano for a couple of hours at a retirement home, there’s still going to be a crowd of happy seniors, even if they weren’t looking for music. If you buy a hamburger and fries for someone on the street, it’s going to be appreciated even if their favourite meal is really spaghetti. Sometimes, though, it matter more if the gift fits the recipient.   Think of a great set of steak knives as a wedding gift for a vegan couple.   Now that’s an obvious one (I hope!) My first two children are just seventeen months (and five days) apart.   And while my first child was completely disinterested in “the baby in mommy’s tummy”, once his sister was born, he was mesmerized.   She was tiny, she was beautiful, and she was his sister.   He wanted to share all of his things with her.   Now, this was pretty cute wh

Do as I say, not as I do. It’s heard far too often – in my opinion – in too many contexts.   There are so many politicians, other leaders, and more who follow this pretext.   Whether it’s intentional or accidental, it’s a concept with which I have a problem. Are you sometimes around people like that?   Perhaps not the public ones, but some of the personal connections in your life?   I have a few of this type.   In some cases, they’re even people I love, respect, or admire. But the fact that what they say and what they do doesn’t match definitely affects me.   First and foremost, I feel confusion.   I don’t know what to think, or what to believe.   And while I can sometimes – or often – make an educated guess based on my knowledge of that person, I prefer to avoid this on the “assume” premise.   You know, the one where “assume” makes an ass out of u and me .    It’s been my observation that this is often true for the simple reason that we never completely know another person.   He

 Have you ever found that you seemed to miss something obvious?  You know, like dotting an “i”, or crossing a “t”.  Little things which seem like their impact might be small.  But, you know, it’s often not. Take my move a few years ago.   We rented a truck from a well-known company – one of those big straight ones with a 26’ foot box.   As the person with a full driver’s licence, I was the lucky one who got to drive it – an interesting experience fraught with many of what we’ll gently call stories.   Let’s just leave it that it was the biggest thing I’d ever driven at the time. Our new home was on a bit of a hill – that is, one drove up a hill to get to the house, and at that point the ground was level … or at least, so I thought.   We learned otherwise.   I drove up the hill and parked the truck in front of the garage, with the back door (and life’s possessions) close to the house.   I turned the truck off and got out.   And then.   And then, I realized the truck was slowly s