In my town, the roads seem to be "all construction, all the time." There's a weekly feature in the paper asking a set of questions of local figures, and most everyone answers "What would you change about Denton" with "Finish the road construction at XYZ!"
There's a place leading to our newest shopping area that's been under construction for the last 3 years. Really! It's just maddening. It certainly keeps me from shopping at those places...at least as much as I would otherwise. My Weight Watchers meeting is there, or I'd almost never go to that side of town.
And, this summer, the street I live on has been removed and is being rebuilt. They did it in 2 sections...the east end first...so I had an opportunity to see what was coming. WHAT - A MESS!
Now they are working on my part of the street. I'm not sure why it was necessary to do this...the street was not in bad shape as far as I can see; while the street one block south is a wreck. Anyway, on West Oak, the asphalt layer has been scraped away (about 10 inches worth), several curbs, sidewalk panels, and driveway entrances were wrecked out and re-concreted, and the street is currently a dusty blowing mess. Ugh!
I have been VERY put out about this! You never know when you can get into the street, or the driveway; or from which direction. You never know when you might have to back down the surface that is like driving on the moon, to enter another way.
But I've decided I'm tired of hearing myself complain about it, and that I'm going to look at it as a metaphor for preparation. It's Ordinary Time, but things feel more Lent-y to me.
This summer at work is strange...I have a new "big boss" of a year now. I have a new direct boss coming in August, and another new upper-level manager arriving in the next week. We have been working on getting new management in here for the last four years, and working under an interim director for part of that time. It's often been messy, inconvenient; we've had to learn new ways of doing things only to have them tossed out when the new person arrived. The direct boss will be wonderful, I am confident, but there will be getting-to-know and learning-to-interpret and all that stuff. And we are moving buildings in the winter...where we'll have less space than we do now.
We are doing strategic planning - for the division, and for my own unit as well. There are high expectations without a lot of clarity as to how they will be supported.
Anticipating the year to come has been making me feel - well - just plain worn out. I could use some resurrection!
So...Lent is classically intended to include prayer, penitence, alms-giving, and self denial. I'm not sure how alms-giving fits in here...but I'm going to concentrate on daily prayer for my workplace and my new leaders. I'm going to do what I can to prepare the way, including cleaning off this desk and sorting the files, and getting rid of what I don't need...better now than right before Christmas. I'm going to finish the strategic plan and turn it in for review.
And I'm going to have faith that, eventually, the dust of all these changes will settle...as will the dust on my street...and there will be a way forward.
