Good morning. Another Monday ‘off’. I had saved the day for my third place of employment but they did not have an assessment client for me.
That is OK. I can survive. Over the weekend I wrote several reports. The time that took was probably a work day.
I can be flexible. Flexible is good. The Oak and the Reed was one of Aesop’s fables. I never knew that until a few minutes ago. Sometimes it really is better to bend than break.
Depending upon the issue, of course. In one of the DBT lessons I taught recently we talked about the phrase “is this a hill you want to die on?” One of our clients had grown up with her father, a military man, using that phrase and she never knew what it meant. What does it mean? It means there are some battles we should decide not to fight. The victory is not worth the cost. When you don’t want to die on that particular hill, you skirt it. Go around.
So I am being flexible. Doing that a LOT these days.
I did not tell you about the transportation debacle I had just getting to my yogini to get to the yoga festival. I found out transportation will not only take me to work and medical appointments, it will take me just because I want to go. I decided to try it to get to my yogini’s house. Needed to be there at 9:25, so I told them I needed to be there at 9:15. They picked me up at 7:50! I sat nearly 90 minutes in the park because I did not want to impose on my yogini.
There was an older woman on the same run. She wanted to go to the drug store that opened at 9. They dropped her off at 8:10!
I was flexible. I was able to find a place to sit and do some research for a possible trip. I decided not to complain. Just made a note to myself to avoid taking transportation any place I cannot get out of the elements, any place I cannot use my time productively while waiting. I have the resources that will allow me not to have to take transportation to activities all that often. I don’t have to use my energy to fight that battle.
If I had been the woman going to the drug store? I believe I would have raised a serious stink as the phrase goes. She was a woman in her late 70s being left to stand in the heat. Oh, yeah. I would have fought that battle.
So I try to be flexible. I pick my battles and decide which ‘hills’ I will ‘die’ on. I try not to cut off my nose to spite my face – another great, old saying. I adapt to this new reality. When necessary, I am the reed.
Written 8/15/2016
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