Rain Begins Cleansing: Week 2

This week was my most successful week so far. Nearly every day I made my exercise goals and am checking more things off my To Do list resulting in a sense of private victory. I'm working on a public victory at work through continuing my work on the simulation project and the group search to replace/streamline ADDIE. The lastest thing I started doing with Outlook to help keep me organized was put in appointment placeholders that very breifly describe what I did during that time or what I was going to use that time to do. I didn't mark these time blocks as busy, so if someone wanted to set an appointment they would see I was free. This practice helps when I have to account for my hours each week and it helps keep me productive and focused. I understand that this is a problem for creative types in general, but it can be a real challenge when you are both a creative type and you work remotely from home. I felt incredibly productive.

The Covey/Karma Intersect
This made me think about the Buddhist concept of Karma. Often Karma has a negative connotation as in "Instant Karma is Going to Get You."



Actually Karma is neutral. It can be either good or bad. It's cause and effect. Good Causes = Good Effects, Bad Causes = Bad Effects. Karma is not predetermination either. It helps explain why your life is the way it is today, but it is also a guide for self-improvement.

Good Habits Are Gonna Get You (Ahead in Life)
Another way of looking at Karma is as good or bad habits. For instance daily exercise, eating healthy, good study habits, budgeting your money, planning your week, valuing friendships, expressing gratitude, not taking advantage of people, telling the truth (with the exception of white lies told for good reasons), not smoking, and even simple things like brushing your teeth can all produce good karma. When you have good habits your children tend to develop good habits. Your good habits have a positive influence on others, like relatives, friends, students and ultimately society. This is one way karma has an influence that lasts generations.

One of the "Big Rock" suggestions was our role as a friend. One of my bad habits in this area was not keeping in touch with them. So this week I put a get together with some of my friends from the high school where I used to teach on my calendar. I contacted them in advance and made it happen. We got together for happy hour Friday. It turned into one of the happiest 4 hours of my life. I changed a bad habit to a good one and now have more and closer friends as a result. Since yy company is very active with charitable causes, we also discussed writing a grant to help further their education work. If that happens my simple act of contacting some old friend can have a positive ripple effect much larger than a few laughs over Margaritas. Perhaps we can give hope and a better future to some underpriviledged students, too.

Rain Begins the Cleansing Process
The Sunday after I met with my friends my wife asked if we could drive out to a local Christmas tree farm, Farmer Brown's Christmas Tree Farm. They are located in the area where the wildfires started. Even though they weren't badly effected their normal customers had been staying away. She wanted to get a tree from them to help them out.

On the way there we drove through the fire ravaged areas. We didn't see any burned homes but it felt like we were driving through a lunar landscape. Hills covered with blackened vegetation or totally barren. We did see a burned out bus. In places they were installing barriers on the hillsides so we won't wash away when the rainy season comes. We heard earlier in the day that we could get a little rain. It wouldn't be much, just enough to cleanse the air of the microscopic ash we've all been breathing the last two weeks.

We arrived at the farm, an oasis of trees surrounded by charred, rocky foothills. It took us a while to find one. Though the trees weren't badly hurt you many had the areas with sections where the pine needles had died. We finally found a nice, undamaged one and went into the house to pay.

Inside it was Christmas. They had hot cocoa and holiday snacks for customers and a room filled with lovely Christmas crafts. Another family was there. We got on the subject of Christmas caroles and before long we all broke into song, Jingle Bells. It was so strange singing a song about dashing through the snow surrounded by black ash. Sadly we heard Farmer Brown is selling his place. Our small purchase wouldn't be enough.

On the way home it started sprinkling. The cleansing had begun.