Archives For Work

I rinsed bits of wild rice and cranberry off my plate and grabbed my laptop from the table. While the next episode of Gilmore Girls loaded, I nestled into the couch and prepared myself for a Netflix binge.* 

 

The following morning, as I sipped on a cup of french roast, I contemplated my media marathon and the power of stories to pull us in. For centuries, story-telling has kept humans up after dark—around fires, in igloos, and via MacBooks on the couch. 

 

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Stories sneak past our mental gestapo and grab us at a level where facts don’t reach. They penetrate down to where emotions shape what we want out of life. 

 

Which makes me wonder…why do we tend to talk about Christianity like a set of beliefs, rather than a story that we’ve been swept up into? 

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Between bites of kimchi, my friend told me about her goal of developing a weekly rhythm at work. She pinched a clump of rice between her chopstick and explained that this would increase her productivity. 

 

As I drove home, I ruminated on the taste of garlic and the differences between our jobs. My friend depends on weekly and daily goals to keep her from drowning in a sea of details. I don’t have that problem. Each morning I find a schedule laying on the mahogany desk–my marching orders for the day.  

 

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One of the perks to being a nurse practitioner is that when I sign off on the last patient’s chart my day is done. No long-term projects to bleed into my weekend. No need for goals to organize my time.

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September 2014

 

I locked the office door and turned toward my car. The movie theater, with its sea of windshields glittering under the lamp light, greeted me. I crumpled into the driver’s seat and massaged my neck, trying to release the lead ball suspended between my shoulders.

 

Ten minutes later, the smell of fries—hot from the wire basket—filled the car.

 

“Why does it take me three hours to do paperwork?” I mumbled, cramming a fry into my mouth.

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