Job Satisfaction Isn't About How Much You Earn

Thinking back ten years, I remember a time in my life when I was heavily involved in volunteer work. This was before I ever had a paying job, I would go to my volunteer job at the hospital, and I almost always loved it. My first year, I worked in patient transport. This was a pretty neat job. The volunteers sat in a room, usually stuffing envelopes to be mailed or just listening to an older volunteer talk about his life. Other times, I was able to work on my homework or read a book. We would get a call to go to a different department to wheel a patient in a wheelchair either to another department for a test or outside if they were being discharged.

Another year, I worked in the Gift Shop as a cashier which I found really exciting because it was a little store.

My last two years, I spent in the adult day care helping the seniors with their daily activities such as games like bowling or throwing pins or arts and craft projects such as painting. One lady I remember in particular, I was helping her paint a picture, and she kept putting her hands on the wet paint. Other times, I would help distribute the food at lunchtime.

I didn't get paid for my hours spent at the hospital helping out, but I found it rewarding regardless. I might not have been making a profit from this venture, but I was growing as a person inside, developing more of an awareness of the human condition as I got to see patients that were better and happy to be going home, patients that were unsure of their fate as they went from department to department for various tests, visitors visiting the hospital feeling an uneasiness inside about visiting a sick person, and patients that were older and nearing the end of their life.

I also did a short stint in the maternity ward preparing the bassinets for the newborns. I had to place the pad into the bassinet, only imagining that soon enough a new life would be laying on it, and wondering all the wonderful and maybe not so wonderful memories that this new life would acquire over the years. Wondering how their lives would unfold. Was I preparing the bassinet for the next Einstein? Was this one for the next President? Was I making the bassinet for the person that would grow up to eventually lead to my very own demise? Would the person in this one be the person to grow up and find a cure for cancer? I could only wonder, but I found it fascinating regardless.

Its not about how much you make at your job in terms of monetary compensation, but how are you growing as a person. That is what is the most important thing to keep in mind. Yes, money is an important necessity, but its only the most superficial value of having a particular job when it comes to connecting with humanity.

Brave Bird

The sign says "Do Not Open Windows, Birds Will Peck"

Brave Bird walks fearlessly among the vehicles that slow down around the him. He knows he is in charge in this scene. He feels as if he is the star and this is his show. The vehicles don't belong in his environment, but they are there anyway. He never learned from his mother how to deal with all this odd attention. Brave Bird is just a bird after all, not supposed to be an exhibit in a drive thru safari.

"Its just not right" Brave Bird thinks to himself.

He knows that he is supposed to live among other animals, but these moving metal vehicles, that is not something he is used to or instinctively knows how to deal with.

'TAP' 'TAP' 'TAP' "why you here? what do you want?" Brave Bird thinks as he is tapping on the glass windows of the moving metal vehicles driving by. Total utter confusion enters his mind. "What are these moving things??? Damn, please don't run over my tiny toes."

Day after day, year after year, slowly Brave Bird adapts to his new environment, so unnatural, but his new home. Meantime, millions of moving metal vehicles slowly drive by Brave Bird observing him in what they unnaturally think is his 'natural environment'. The moving metal vehicles weave their way past Brave Bird and through the park and out the exit, and as they exit the park, they move on with their lives and their memories and thoughts about Brave Bird fade quickly.

Brave Bird is still there all this time later, enduring the endless days of the moving metal vehicles that threaten his safety every step he takes, but still he walks by, showing that this is his land, his home, and no matter how many moving metal vehicles almost run him over, he will continue to be Brave Bird regardless.

Thinking experiment

Whenever I go to a library or bookstore, I like to do this little experiment to see what thoughts are floating around in my head. I like to walk around looking at the floor and then I listen to my intuition when to look up at the books on the shelves and I look to see the first word that my eyes focus on. Then keeping that word in mind, I look down and walk some more and then look up when it feels right and glance at the next word my eyes focus on. I keep doing this and then I try to figure out why my eyes focused on those words and not other words. I attempt to put them together in something that seems logical to me. What I get out of this is that it helps me to figure out what my mind is thinking, what words I attract to myself, what words come into my reality. Its amazing and I recommend everyone to try it.

Pondering coincidence

Today at work, I was thinking about coincidence. I find it amusing that sometimes, two people will be having a discussion with me at different times, and they will mention a word to me, and it is always a word that stands out in my mind cause its not a word I hear often (it doesn't matter what word it is). I don't know if its a coincidence that both people would say the same word to me or not. It seems weird to me, but maybe its just my mind trying to find patterns and make sense of language or something like that. But is it a coincidence that I am paying attention to that particular word in general or is there a meaning why I am focusing on the word in question? I also noticed that this happens with tv, you could be watching a program and they will say a phrase and it stands out in your mind cause you were just thinking that same phrase a short time ago. Is that coincidence?

Bargain of the day...or is it???

The other day, I got this gift card for a local discount store from my mother. She got it cause she filled a Rx and had a coupon that if you have a Rx filled, you get a $10 gift card. So, that is what happened. I walked around the store trying to figure out what to buy with this $10 gift card. I have such a hard time finding something I want or need, cause I don't really need or want anything. So, after walking laps around the store, looking at all the various items on display in all the departments, I came across this t-shirt that seemed to "speak" to me. It was on the clearance rack, originally $12.99, it was now $3.24. I tried it on in the fitting room, it looked nice, so I bought it. I left the store thinking, wow, that was a pretty good bargain. But, was it really?

The shirt was made in Vietnam, most likely the individuals that operated the machines to cut and sew the pieces of fabric together were very poor, living substandardly, and forced to work for extremely low wages, just to survive. What where they thinking when they were working on this shirt of mine? Probably that the shirt is nice and that they wished they could wear nice new shirts like that. Probably envious of the people that would end up wearing them. Maybe some anger or resentment as well if they are aware enough, or maybe they are just happy to have their job so they don't see how they are being used or maybe not wanting to see it.

My mother initially received the gift card I used to buy the shirt from filling an Rx. It was a bribe from the store to get people to use their pharmacy services, further promoting the use of Rx medications. Ok, so many people believe that medications are ok to use. Well, I have other opinions about that, I'll leave that discussion for another time. Meantime, I will just say that medications have side effects that can create more health problems. I don't really want to go into too much detail right now about how the pharmaceutical companies make so much profit on the drugs they sell while so many people have to pay exorbitant prices for them out of pocket.

But why should I care? I got the shirt for free.

But I do care, people die every day from taking medications or from the side effects that create more health issues. People work so hard in many countries around the world working for very low wages and live in poverty, so Americans can get discounted or inexpensive items, while the business middle man makes all the profit.

My first posting :)

I don't know where to start or how to start a blog. This is my first attempt at writing something like this. I feel like what I am doing is writing a public diary. This should definitely be interesting, I will speak my mind, and what I might say and what direction it goes in, well, time will tell, cause I don't know myself at this point where any of this will lead.