I have said many times to myself that I need to slow down and be present. Don't get too stuck in what's going on that you miss what's happening around you.
A few weeks ago while in a store buying select material I was lost in concentration reading the back of a product label. I was way in the back hunched over trying to read the small ass print - ugh! It was evening time, not many of us in this quiet place. I could hear a conversation between a customer and employee. I don't know what they were talking about, but my unconscious was listening.
"Ah man, everyday is Friday!"
That stopped me.
The customer continued, I hate it and love it at the same time, but everyday is Friday.
I paused reading, I peered through the aisle and saw a man, ish about my age, wearing a painter's outfit. They're easy to spot, usually in light colors, pelted in colors of the rainbow. He was a business owner buying material.
As soon as I saw the man, I fully understood what he was saying. There was no room to complain. He loved what he did and had the awareness of the use of his time. Everyday was Friday! It was a day to go to work, wrap up work knowing that should he choose that tomorrow would be, could be a day off...
or, would it be another Friday?
So often in the service business we're required to work the weekends. Whether or not you're at the customers house working or not, you could be working in your shop on their project. Or oftentimes in my situation, I am at home on a Saturday and Sunday wearing my mon-fri get up, taking care of long overdue work at home that needs working sprinkled in with customer related tasks.
Nonetheless, hearing his spirit that everyday is Friday resonated deeply with me.
I am grateful to the universe that she has allowed me to find something that I am uniquely gifted at to call my full time job. Some people need to go for a run, dancing, do MMA, or lift weights to decompress. They need that physical grind to - ahhh.... let the stresses of life dissipate. For me, I get to wear my tools.
I get to wear my tools and meet many interesting people along the way. I get to see new shit that I would have otherwise not ever seen had someone not asked me to do it. Since the reach of my services are so incredibly broad, there's almost no house-related situation where I don't have countless hours invested into where I'm unable to lead or serve my customer.
Gosh damn that shit gives me chills.
Such a gift doesn't come without its double edged sword... a gift I am keenly aware of.
I love the fact that AI and the floor cleaning i-Robots cannot take my job away from me... well, at least in my lifetime. The joy in that awareness is that the world needs service providers who aren't robots either. The challenge is that this kind of human care executed at such a high level within this craft is incredibly difficult to find. Of which leaves me to be outnumbered like a modern day teacher with a classroom of 46 students.
To survive is to love the craft more than the pain of not being able to serve everyone. You ask any teacher in that spot, they'll tell you that they love the kids... is why they keep showing up.
For me, I love this shit.
To compound the vulnerability, I'm clocking more turns around the sun. I'm clocking more turns around the sun while also spinning the moon around me like a child in my arms at the park... I am further reminded that I am not a machine, I'm100% human.
If I don't take a break, or slow down some, I will be too dizzy to walk straight, too dizzy to have a conversation, not to mention the physical pain of not stopping. It's more pain right now that's distracting than the dizziness of commitments.
The beauty in being able to call everyday a Friday, is that sometimes you gotta know when to call it a Sunday for a bit. The timing of this day, to that sentence, was not planned.
Honestly, I have written this blog twice now having not liked either of them, all the while it's taken about an hour at each turn. Although the 40lb tool bag can be a real bitch to move at every spot, every day, sitting here at the computer, vulnerably owning the commitments I'm dropping, needing to take a Sunday - me reaching out to a buddy doesn't hurt the shoulder like carrying the bag does, but is just as important.
You gotta love it.
Have a grateful weekend my friend!
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