He called looking for a sounding board.
I’ve been offered a job. We’d have to move North…
I push my chair away from the desk, lean back, and lean in.
More money….Bigger job…Great company…
He’s a kid again, bubbly about his shiny, new red Schwinn.
I’ve been here for 14 years. I’m stale. I need a change.
Like the Blue Moon, he beams down triennially with the same bright light.
The kids are in college. They’re not holding us down here any longer. Jane tells me to do what I think is right.
He’s seeking counsel from a Corporate Gypsy, who’s been unwavering in the triennial counsel: “Go.” But he doesn’t interrupt.
But…
Here it comes. The Gates are coming down…
My parents are getting older…Our Friends…Our Church…Our Lifestyle…like a pair of cozy slippers.
The Rooted tweaks the Un-Rooted, pinches a nerve. Friends. Church. Hmmmm.
I love it here. It’s all not all about The Job.
We’re 12 minutes into the monologue and he takes a breath.
Are you still there? What do you think?
My mind drifts to a passage from Pritchard’s A Solemn Pleasure where she compares herself to a tumble-weed which easily releases from its roots to roll unhindered across the arid landscape.
“I’m here Friend. I’m here. I’m listening.”
So, what do you think?
A Man asking another Man who is living Pritchard, who sees no place as a firm place, and that displacement can be its own region.
“Most would kill for what you have.”
Really?
“Really.”
Notes:
- Post inspired by Melissa Pritchard’s A Solemn Pleasure: To Imagine, Witness, and Write
- Image Credit
- Related Posts: Commuting Series
Live & Learn 
Yep! This kind of choice can never be taken lightly by our thinking mind … but we also know there is so much more. Open the heart and soul and approach with a lightness of possibility.
Go lightly my child go lightly 💛
xo
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🙂 Yes Val. Yes.
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Indeed.
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really.
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I can’t even imagine how different my/our life would have been, if we had not embraced so many changes, not honored that restless spirit. Tumbleweeds…for sure. ☺
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I learning Van, learning to embraced that restless spirit…Your comment swept me away…
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I didn’t see the end coming. I love that. Your friend called the right sounding board.
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Smiling. Thank you Sandy. Love the clip.
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Stay or go? That’s the question. The lure of more money is always strong, though at what cost? Why is that the measure?
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It’s about finding that right balance isn’t it…
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How can we not roll?
We’re living on a spinning, rocky sphere hurtling through space at who-knows-what speed! It’s no wonder we long for some imagined sense of security.
Still, with each breath we change, so why not just enjoy the ride?
Vincent
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Smiling. LOVE your comment Vincent. So captures it…thanks for sharing.
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I’ve spent a big part of my life as a tumbleweed, but now, the maternal part of me very strongly needs to stay where love is. Nothing has become more important to me than family, kids, grandchildren. 🙂
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I can feel and see that Carol.
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My comment is a little off-course, but the analogy is there in my mind. Having lived through the dust-bowl years experiencing the awful winds that carried the country’s top-soil to oblivion, and recognizing the tumbleweed that often filled the air, I associate that awful weed with the inability to see. A strong wind in the Panhandle of Texas and Oklahoma could have their house literally covered with them intertwined to the extent of temporary imprisonment until help came your way.
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I can see your reference point (clearly) Marie…
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There is a fashion these days to imagine an equation of work / life balance, a calculation that places things on one side or the other then attempts to draw a conclusion from the pluses and minuses.But this is an illusion. There is only life. There are only minutes. “How we spend our days is how we spend our lives.” Look at how you will spend your minutes, your days, and the answer will be clear. Money is only a means, not an end. Think of the minutes…… long hours and long days spent in an office, pointless bureaucratic rules, interminable meetings, this is not life. Tumbling along to something new is wonderful, but only if we are open to new ideas and new experiences for the right reasons. Those reasons should be to enrich our lives, our minds, our relationships, not to imprison ourselves in sterile offices. Even if it is for more money. What good will the money be when your minutes are irretrievably gone? Be a tumbleweed, but be one for the right reasons.
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Mark, you have it all figured out. Thanks for sharing. I’m listening. With both ears.
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I got similar counsel almost 30 years ago in Stockholm (Sweden). In retrospect I’m happy I didn’t listen.
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Me too!
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