We're coming up on the 6 month & 1 missing week anniversary and I'm celebrating, just before Black Friday and just after Friday the 13th.
I'll talk more about the celebration in next weeks All That Seems Random and hope you'll be ready to party with me all week long starting on Saturday November 14th and going through Friday November 20th.
Now about that Automatic Response Mechanism or ARM for short.
If someone throws something your way, towards any part of your body, your ARM moves out to either capture it or deflect it away from you. If you believe it will be harmful or it's fully unexpected the ARM usually tries to deflect it. If you're expecting it or your reflexes have been trained to capture objects moving toward you, you grab for it.
Either way, it's a reflexive motion that you don't think about much before it occurs.
So I've been noticing the other 'reflexive' or 'automatic responses' I have this week.
One of the most insipid 'automatic responses' I noticed in myself this week is to always want to respond, with something, anything at all to break the silence, answer the question, ask another question, gain clarity, ease the tension, point out the obvious - you get it. I just can't stop myself.
I noticed this tendency as I sat with the pain in the butt. The one I held for almost a month, which went away in earnest and returned with a thankfully brief vengeance. Most of this week there was soreness, no pain.
The week was calm, easy, fairly relaxed. I did lots of talking out loud to no one in particular, asking questions and practicing my listening skills.
I also did some work - a little for myself and a little for clients.
Then last night, I got stressed. I'm still not sure what the stressor was but the pain came back.
This morning it lingers. Wafting in and out and I'm wondering how much of this pain is an automatic response mechanism, an ARM, or in my case a leg, which is trying to capture or deflect the expected and unexpected being tossed my way.
Because of this there were notes, not found on my desk this week.
Instead this week were uhm, 'sightings' and 'actions'.
Sightings (Having a digital camera would have helped me convey the sightings to you better but oh well, you'll just have to take my words.)
- the almost indecipherable and abstract diagram on the top of the Advil bottle. My first thought about it was how perfect a stamp it would make
- the sad, worried, shocked chicken face in the flower on the curtains in my office. I've named her Petunia Poultre
- Mockingbirds everywhere I look
- Handing out my first business card
- Getting more clarity on who I serve and how I serve them
- Getting ready for a party (I've never thrown a party before)
--
LaShae
