Wednesday, July 22, 2015

You have to forget in order to remember

You know all those gratitude challenges? The ones where you pledge to find something to be grateful for in each day? In which you have to remember to be grateful. If you have ever done one of those, then you'll know that some days you have to settle for being grateful for being alive and call it a day.

I've had those days, we all have. You just can't find the silver lining sometimes. And then, I came home. I came home and I got an amazing job. It doesn't sound very amazing, nor does it sound interesting. But it is. And I no longer have to remember to be grateful.

Everything from the free parking, to the cheap food, to the work culture, to the diversity of my role. I work far away, but I wake up later than some people who need to beat traffic.  I can have a life. I know what I'm working for, and that reason is not profit (a gazillion gratitude points for this one!). I have a room, with a door I can shut. People respect your time and energy. You are more important than a deadline. The deadlines are reasonable to begin with.

One day I'm writing a welcoming address for a minister, one day I'm caught up in statistic formulae, one day I'm reading academic papers. One moment I'm lost in a world of spreadsheets, and another I'm playing peek-a-boo with my colleague's toddler. Who knew I could be so content being a research officer in a department I never knew existed.

I spend most of my days learning, and some of them teaching. And I no longer have to remember to be grateful.

மறந்தால் தானே நினைத்திட