DRINKING FROM THE FIREHOSE

As a kid, every now and then the city would come and uncork the fire hydrant on our street to blow out the pipes and check the pressure. When it happened in the summer, we all got our swim suits on and played in the water being sprayed at a really good clip.

It was hard enough to stand in a water source like that, much less drink. I found the only way to drink the water was to put out my hands, collect some water and drink a little bit at a time. Little did I know that would be a huge metaphor in my life…..over and over and over and over. There is something exciting about a lot of water (or information) coming out of a small opening and experimenting with how to stand, ride the wave, or just sit in the spay.

Welcome to my life lately. It is very easy for me to get really busy or not…..the challenge is to find the gray area, the middle ground or in more modern terms…..balance. With the start of engineering school, I had a lot of time and was right on top of everything. Then came the sound studio. Then came the project for my school. All together I went from 0 -60 real quick. So at first I was overwhelmed and was attempting to control all the projects so I could handle them easily…….it never works that way for me.

With all the changes, stops, starts, cancellations, date movements, and other shifts, I found out quickly that I cannot control this project…….I can manage it though. I can manage it by seeing what comes up and then making adjustments versus spending lots of time guessing what will go wrong, finding the answer and attempting to control the process to meet my expectations……..just hasn’t worked.

So what I found AGAIN is how much time I spend chewing on things……churning them in my head over and over and over. It had gotten so bad I had run my adrenials down. Today I am still drinking from the fire hose a sip at a time and I am getting closer to balance and finding more time each day while paradoxically it get busier….. I now know why they say “If you want something done, give it to a busy person.”