Full Circle Associates

I am sitting this week in the proverbial spot between a rock and a hard place: important family work and pressing professional work. Today my dear husband is being my proxy on the family matters to give me a day of quiet to try and chip away at my to do list. It is just after 10am and I have dispensed with about 30 emails, but not the pressing work. I just watched as a wave of rain rolled across the horizon to my house. I could see the edge of rain and I sat, mezmerized for a few blissful, forgetting moments.

Work is a central part of my life - paid, volunteer, family. I love it. But I get lost in it. I forget to take the time to step back and reflect on it. So as I glanced through my RSS feeds, I saw a link to danah boyd's post, 5 secrets to success. (I love following people's del.icio.us tags!)

This was a beautiful, thoughtful and useful reflection on her work. Reading it was, like watching the rain arrive, a refreshing moment. I could hear danah's voice, and imagine her eyes if she were telling it to me, F2F. And it was damned good advice.

I have written in a date with myself in a week to try and take some reflection time about my work - away from the computer, I hope! Because I fear that if I allow myself to be consumed by work, I will not achieve what I aspire from my work: to add value to the world. Work with a capital W. Some days lately I feel I'm tottering on a "check the box" mode of working. That is when learning stops and, to me, my ability to add value stops. It is a fuzzy line and easy to miss. It is when the quality of attention shifts. Diminishes.

I want the shift to always be towards the side of learning, not just getting things done. Of attention and reflection, not forgetting.

Oh, the rain just turned to hail and the sound on the roof changed. An old Stevie Wonder tune from Songs in the Key of Life ("Isn't She Lovely") is working well with the sound on the roof.

Now I think I can work. Or maybe it is Work!