Saturday, January 08, 2011

Getting Itchy, Gotta Breathe

I feel it coming on and the timing's all wrong. My heart and my belly are my barometers for change and the pressure is increasing as I know a high is in the forecast. How soon I'm not sure but there seems to be something at about the 2 year mark that sets me off. To hell with the 7 year itch, I have the A.D.D. version of that in which after 2 years the walls seem to close in a bit tighter and the colors look a bit duller and the rut feels that much deeper. Two years and I start asking myself that horrible question..."is this it?" Is this what I want to do for the rest of my life? Is this how I am expressing my uniqueness and individuality and creativity in this lifetime? Of course I know I have to make money in this lifetime and I know that I am lucky to have the kind of job that allows me to serve others while having a wage that allows me to work part time. I'm blessed that way and appreciative...and my feet are itchy for more or for something different. In other words I'm a spoiled little bitch, but we already knew that. This constant moving around from ER to ER isn't the best plan for financial stability but my left brain never was very well developed. My retirement planner (me, actually, whenever I bother to think about retiring and hope that Social Security will hold out for 30 more years and survive the Republican/Obama ideology of war vs. social programs) knows this is a horrible strategy for having money in the distant future. But I can't fire him no matter how bleak my "portfolio" looks. Right now, my employer will match money that I put away for retirement. It's totally free money! How awesome is that?!!! I remember as a kid, my glass-half-empty Dad telling me there is no free lunch. Great advice. Probably better given to someone older than a 6 or 7 year old holding an 'all you can eat for free' Denny's kids meal, but good advice none the less. As an adult I think of it often. If I stay at this job for the next 20 years I might actually have quite a bit of money on which to retire. Did I really just write that last sentence?!! There truly is no free lunch or lunch money. All I have to do is trade my 50's and 60's for some financial security in my 70's so I can look back and wish I would have traveled to places I used to think were cool in my 30's and 40's. Did I really just write that last sentence?!! As I did there was a tightness in my throat, some chest discomfort, slight nausea and a shallowing of the breath...very similar signs of having a heart attack. Not too dissimilar to the feelings I mentioned earlier and yet extremely different. Kind of like how the feeling of being intensely in love feels a lock like being intoxicated only a lot better. Listen to your body...trust your gut I hear my inner voice crying out. There is an inner wisdom that bypasses the normal cognitive approach and we logical beings like to ignore it. Why do most of us dismiss intuition as silly, or foolish, or something only yoga instructors in their early to mid 20's listen to for guidance? Because if we did listen to our inner...our body's way of telling us right and wrong the whole world would change in an instant. From the food we eat to the way we talk with and about each other and the work we do and the wars we wouldn't wage to how we spend our free time would all be radically altered. If it feels good (to your soul) do it. OK I am digressing badly and I know this because John Lennon's "Imagine" is now going through my head... "and the world will live as one".
You can see where I'm going with train of thought. It's the justification I need for allowing me to start dreaming again of travel...of leaving...of adventure. When I look back at my resume there is a distinct bi-annual migration that occurs in my life. Almost always in the fall and specifically in October, I change jobs and move on. I'm almost a full three months behind schedule now and am starting to jones for a life change...THE TRIP! It's not that I want a new nursing job, that's almost never it...and it's not a good time AT ALL for me to be feeling this travel bug. But how do you control what you feel or when you feel it?

2 comments:

margaret said...

Ah, Dude! You're BACK! See- from MY perspective, you very well could have been gone somewhere and I'd never know...you could "gotta breathe" and be itchy ANYWHERE...And in 2 yrs wherever that is- you'd be itchy and breathless THERE! Wait- I'm confusing myself- where am I? Must be platitude time: BE HERE NOW! Well- I -for one- am super happy you live and write HERE!

James said...

Thanks Margaret! I'm happy to just be...and to be around friends like you. Just got to get used to being itchy I guess...just wish there were a treatable cause...like mozzie bites in a jungle or bed bug bites in some dive guest house. and I know, "wherever you go, there you itch!"