Following the Sun: Week 1

I am waking up at 6am these days. 0600.

For a guy who has an average wake up time of about 0800, this is a big shift. I have worked west-coast hours my entire adult life. It is a coping mechanism for the oppressive traffic patterns that come with living in the DC Metro area. To my body, it first felt like waking up at 0300. Now it's the new normal.

Lights Out at Sunset

Starting last week, Liz and I are trying something new. We are shutting down all of the lights and screens in the house shortly after sunset. No artificial lights if we can help it.

This usually happens around 2045 or so. The house is pretty dark by then. We light a couple candles, sit and talk. And then we go and brush and floss by candlelight in the bathroom and then we lie down in bed and talk for a bit before we get tired.

It used to be that I would get tired and go brush and floss and get ready for bed. I would read for a good while before falling asleep.

Now, when the sun has set we turn the lights out as well. There is no reading myself to sleep. At first I missed it. But I find that I feel tired and fall asleep after lying there for a bit. And the book is always there waiting for me in the morning.

I have to plan to get my reading done during the daylight hours now. Often this is in the morning before work and just a bit after dinner before lights out. It's a bit of a guilty pleasure reading fiction early in the morning but it makes for an unrushed feeling about each day.

Mornings At Sunrise

Waking up early hasn't made me efficient. I imagine that I will be able to squeeze in all the things most mornings: Coffee and breakfast. Exercise. Reading. Writing. Music.

In practice, the exercise, writing, and music don't always happen on a daily basis. Some mornings I spend too much time reading the streams of the BookFace. I can pretty much tell you that I always have to drop one of my morning activities because I run out of time.

I used to work 1000 to 1900... but dinner is pretty close to lights out if I get home at 1930, so I intend to start and end work earlier. This will also cut into morning time somewhat. Maybe I will get more efficient over time.

Weekends are especially challenging. It's hard to tear away from the party... hard to get home early enough from evening visits with friends and family to do our shutdown right around sunset. So we pushed into the night a little bit. We will have to find a way to adapt. Maybe by flexing our own rules, maybe by being disciplined about leaving on time.

Changing The Flow

Overall, this has the feel of an experiment to play with the flow of life. In our culture we celebrate being busy and efficient as if it's a good thing without qualification. Sometimes it is good. For instance, if you are holding depression at bay. Slow meandering action is better than no action in this case.

I tend to struggle with something other than depression: the feeling that I don't have enough time for everything I want to learn. I struggle with wondering whether all of the busy I inflict upon myself will add up to contribution and achievement which matters to me in the longest of runs.

Now that the night enforces a routine of rest and quiet upon me, I feel like I have just a bit more mental space. Nothing to read. No devices. Just my own thoughts and talking with Liz while we snuggle.

Last night, we got to talking about work and Liz could tell it was a topic that was going to make it harder for me to sleep. We decided to drop the topic and she stroked my back gently to help settle my mind until she fell asleep. That was really, really nice.

I suspect this sort of practice would break just about any couple out of a rut of feeling like they don't talk to one another enough.

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Photo Credit: "Sunset" by Sunny_mjx from Flickr

What We Need: It's Not More Money

Lunch conversation went deep yesterday. Everyone at our lunch table has, in some way, arrived at the point where we have financial fitness. And although Craig is a bit too young to be as much in a state of existential transition as the older gents at the table, I think I can say this about all of us:

We make enough money and adding more money will not make us any happier.

Money right now is just this game we play to help us select one employer over another.

But the larger task we have before us is to figure out what it is we are going to do with what we have, now that we have more money... if we can make more time.

We are employees, not entrepreneurs. This place that we work... we are delivering the best hours of our days to act out someone else's purpose... for money. And we have to question whether it's worth it. And also, if not this, then what?

Strangely, Salesforce is also helping in their own way to provide fodder for consideration.

My volunteer gig wouldn't be if I were still working for Juniper or Verizon. I don't think it makes me a happy person, or better than anyone else for that matter, to be doing a volunteer gig. But I do think it makes me better than I was before I starting doing it. It gives me a practice venue for being humble and getting my hands dirty and reminds me that hands-on service can be rewarding.

Wednesday mornings, I go to tend the cats at the Sterling Petco and I love to try to do an unquestionably thorough job of it. When I sweep those cat habitations, they are CLEAN.

I don't sweep my own house that well!!

Maybe that says a lot about me, but I don't quite know what. If nothing else, that I am able to drive hard when:

• I know there is a clear purpose (making sure the cats have a clean living space and getting those cats homes)
• I know the beneficiaries personally (Twinkle, Halley, and the black-and-white-one whose name I can't seem to remember)

I think it is really generous of Salesforce to give us paid time to do volunteer activities. It's a grand experiment of sorts.

These are largely community activities that are of uncertain impact and are most certainly not remunerative. Non-remunerative... means that it doesn't earn money... is not lucrative... is not financially rewarding. They don't know what they will get out of it. Probably good PR. But also, maybe, a tiny sliver of a way to change the world by changing people. Reforging them.

Think of it as 10,000 tiny nudges, one delivered to each employee. I accept the challenge. And, I find that it is feeding me spiritually to have my volunteer time as a practice as I ask myself questions about what the hell I am going to be doing in the world that will matter. It helps a great deal to have a space where I can consider what matters without also considering whether something is remunerative.

Next... #JNCIE-ENT or Some #Coding Projects

Debating about what will be next for me. I could work on JNCIE-ENT pretty easily and add switching to my toolbox. But on the other hand I’m tempted to take some time to learn Ruby and Netconf/Sloe and/or XML interactions with routers. Screen scraping gets old. :)