Those of us who are not currently employed are competing for jobs in a field lousy with other people just like us - desperate people with incredible skills, years of experience, and indefatigable hope tempered by moments of bleak despair.
As I start month #7 of unemployment, I decided it would be advantageous to conduct an inventory of new skills I've acquired over the course of the past 6 months. Certainly in a job market that's still pretty much on life-support (prognosis: unknown) it's critical to keep adding to my skill set in order to make myself more marketable. So I'm adding the following to my resume:
1. Taiko drumming
2. Tomato growing
3. Marinara sauce making
4. Cement pouring
5. Gopher basket making
6. Blog writing
7. Lizard observing
8. Fence painting
Hm. I think in the next few months I would be well advised to pick up a few less esoteric skills and focus instead on learning Excel and taking a beginning Spanish class. On the other hand there just may be an employer out there who is looking to hire a Taiko drumming, cement pouring, blue belly loving former hospital director who is trying - with minimal success - to live a life of il dolce far niente.
Il Dolce Far Niente
The sweetness of doing nothing, il dolce far niente, is a wonderful Italian expression that perfectly captures the exquisite gift of living in, and fully appreciating, the moment.
Like most Americans, the ability to live in the moment was for me an abstract idea. Proud of my ability to multitask circles around most people, of my job as director of two hospital departments, of never sitting still for a moment, the concept of "the sweet do-nothing" was at once incredibly appealing and completely foreign.
The concept was foreign, that is, until January 2009 when life intervened and I was abruptly "reorganized" out of my job at the hospital where I worked for almost 20 years.So now, at age 60, here I am living an enforced life of "il dolce far niente." I find myself in the enviable position of having a lot of time on my hands and (initially at least) no idea what to do with it. Although I focus a part of each day doggedly searching for a new job, most of my calendar is so empty it echoes.
But to my surprise, rather than feeling adrift in days without schedules, meetings and agendas, I now know that there is such a richness, such a gift in enjoying each day on its own merit. Rather than controlling my time, I'm learning to allow it to unfold and am almost always pleased with what life presents me.
In this blog, I want to share that richness as I discover the beauty of simple things - while still coming to terms with being unemployed for the first time in my life in an economy that's tanking and where jobs are few and far between. What I hope will evolve through this blog (for you as well as for me) is a true appreciation for another way of living. We'll just have to see how it goes.
Like most Americans, the ability to live in the moment was for me an abstract idea. Proud of my ability to multitask circles around most people, of my job as director of two hospital departments, of never sitting still for a moment, the concept of "the sweet do-nothing" was at once incredibly appealing and completely foreign.
The concept was foreign, that is, until January 2009 when life intervened and I was abruptly "reorganized" out of my job at the hospital where I worked for almost 20 years.So now, at age 60, here I am living an enforced life of "il dolce far niente." I find myself in the enviable position of having a lot of time on my hands and (initially at least) no idea what to do with it. Although I focus a part of each day doggedly searching for a new job, most of my calendar is so empty it echoes.
But to my surprise, rather than feeling adrift in days without schedules, meetings and agendas, I now know that there is such a richness, such a gift in enjoying each day on its own merit. Rather than controlling my time, I'm learning to allow it to unfold and am almost always pleased with what life presents me.
In this blog, I want to share that richness as I discover the beauty of simple things - while still coming to terms with being unemployed for the first time in my life in an economy that's tanking and where jobs are few and far between. What I hope will evolve through this blog (for you as well as for me) is a true appreciation for another way of living. We'll just have to see how it goes.
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