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Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Peaceful Ramblings

My dog, Holly, is snoring...again.  She does that a lot lately, as she is now almost twelve years old, and for a Lhasa Apso that is really getting up there.

It is cold and rainy...again, and that means Holly does not want to go outside, she just likes to curl up on the rug and...well, snore some more.  And that's okay with me.  I like it.  It is peaceful.

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I worked for many years in a high-stress corporate environment.  My days were filled with meetings, calls, emails, and emergencies from before I walked in the door (because I often got the first crisis-of-the-day call in my car as I was driving to my office) until I left - only to arrive home and log on to my PC and see what dilemma had come to light after I left.   Twelve hundred employees meant hundreds of potential problems, and that said nothing of the executives, who were considerably more difficult to deal with than either white-collar or blue-collar employees.  The role of "executive coach" sometimes meant nothing more than me being a highly paid, highly irritated counselor to a corporate wing-nut.

My department was tasked with a seventy-million dollar a year payroll, multi-million dollar lawsuits, and M & A work that, looking back upon it, still makes me shiver (mergers and acquisitions for the non-corporate readers, you lucky dogs).

My long-suffering spouse sometimes sat waiting for me to crawl out from underneath the latest crisis, even when we were on vacation.  I recall sitting in a condo in the Colorado mountains one summer, spending hours on a conference call about lawyers, counter-suits, which testimony was credible and who was going to blink first.   We were not having any fun that day!

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So today, while the rains falls and my dog snores gently at my feet, I am:

....reading C.S. Lewis's book, That Hideous Strength, because D.J. Hughes over at The Quiet Quill is hosting a C.S.Lewis book club and I want to be ready for the June discussion -

...sending thank-you notes to those who were kind enough to send me Mother's Day cards and gifts -

...thinking quiet thoughts and tapping away on my blog -

...just because I can.  And am I ever thankful

Hope your day is peaceful, too.  ...Marsha

7 comments:

  1. My job can be stressful too, and I get too many phone calls at home. So - I really appreciate this post.

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  2. What a lovely time in your life, there certainly is "a time for everything", isn't there?! Sounds like you're a Go-To girl in the midst of the storm and also in the calm of a moment. Good goin'!

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  3. Thanks for explaining what M & A is! I was going to ask ... Sounds like you had an incredibly demanding job. I don't think I am corporate material :)

    Thank you for the kind comments toward and prayers for Kristin. Doc says she still has a ways to go, but at least she is going in the right direction - recovery! WB

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  4. I'm glad that you can enjoy your dog snoring and the peace. Time to read C. S. Lewis, and smell the roses, after a busy stressful working life must make you happy.

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  5. I don't miss the corporate world at all. Like you, even when I went on vacation, I was Blackberry-tethered.
    Could anything have been THAT important in the scheme of things?

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  6. Mari - Hoping soon you won't have so many calls at home. Peace is a comin' :)

    Sweet Tea - Yes, I am so glad the "storm" is over - once I was considered "unflappable in a crisis" - now I just like to "flop" in my easy chair....

    Warren - so glad Kristin is one the mend - and as for M&A - it is sometimes considered a kind of "pinnacle" of corporate work - but I found it to be the "pits" ....

    Diane b - yes, my now peaceful, dog-snoing filled life does make me happy - and VERY grateful

    Rick at Life 101, You and I both know that NOTHING was THAT important; but a whole bunch of hotshots thought it was ... I am now just a former hotshot, who enjoys being a coolspot! :)

    Have a good one -to all the above - and thanks for stopping by.

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  7. I like Holly when she's snoring. :)

    Glad you're reading the next in the series from C.S. Lewis. I'm looking forward to it.

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