lux et amor

A few weeks ago, someone came to me for advice, asking my opinion on whether she should apply for a job or not. We talked through the details of her current job and the potential job. I told her, “The best time to apply for a job is when you already have one,” and it’s true. When you already have a job, you're not desperate. You have an income. You may even have benefits. You might not be satisfied in your current role, and you might even want to get out of a toxic environment, but you still have a place to punch in. For this person, there is not a terrible workplace that she wants to get out of, so that’s even better.  I encouraged her to think about it, to make an honest-to-goodness, on-paper Pro/Con list with her husband, and then apply if she felt so led. And if she gets an interview, great. If not, also great. If she gets an offer, great. If she doesn’t, also great.  I had no idea if my advice was helpful or not, until today. This person reached back out to me, thanking m...

In the theatre world, when there are no rehearsals or performances planned for a given day, it’s referred to the theatre being “dark.” You know, like no one is turning on the lights, so stay out. (Actually the ghost light will be on, so no one falls off the stage and literally breaks a leg, should they be wandering around in the dark.) In the sports world (of which I am exactly 14% familiar, thanks to my children’s brief stints in tee-ball, swim team, and soccer), when a team doesn’t have a game, it’s called a “bye week.”  This past week, I tried an experiment of going dark on social media. My own bye week, to mix metaphors. I decided to not log into my personal Facebook account for an entire week. Now, for my job, I need to log into our professional page, in order to post photos and updates for our school community. But, that’s all I did.  Here’s what I noticed: Each day that passed in the dark, I felt paradoxically lighter and lighter. Instead of buying into the distracting ...