Chicken Little I'm not....

There was a point in my life when I knew it was time to make a change...but hadn't as yet. It was too scary and I felt I had too much stuff to wade through to make it through the transition. I was sitting in a comfort zone, not happily, but not entirely discomfitted...which is another way of saying, I was too lazy to take my life to a new level.

Then a funny thing happened at work. The ceiling above my desk fell in, not once but twice. Not once, but twice, water and plaster came raining down on my computer and all the contents of my desktop. After the first calamity, I tried to take the experience in stride. I cleaned up, moved my desk to another corner of my allotted area and got back to work. I thought I handled it rather well. Except that it happened all over again the very next week.

This second time, my computer, salvaged from the first time, was damaged beyond repair. Important contracts that I had been working on were destroyed and my desk started warping. My chair kind of smelled funny too.

Ultimately, I took the ceiling falling in on me to mean that my stay at that place had reached an endpoint. It was time for me to move on propelled by the only way I knew how---motivated by truly unpleasant circumstances. I had to move on to get out from underneath all that messy water and plaster, to be free of the warped desk and the wet-dog odor of my chair.

I did move, and while traumatic, things did in fact turn out better. With ten years of hindsight, I am very glad that I made that move, thankful for the different path my life took as a result of it.

I recount this story because in my life now, the metaphorical ceiling has started cascading down on me once again. The last day of 2004, my computer crashed, taking with it so many of the comforts that made working at Megabucks Industries palatable. It won't be fixed for a while and even when it is rebuilt, it won't be what it was...there were programs and documents, unfortunately not backed up, that are simply no longer available.

And then today, management announced systemic cuts to my pension and benefits that will be a body blow to my financial stability. In my head I keep hearing, "it's time, it's time for change". But whether I agree with the little, non-psychotic imaginary voice or not, I haven't a clue where the next change is. Yes, I've done a lot of thinking, but I'm short on action. Still, if I don't do something, I'm afraid of another one-two punch, to slap me from my less-than-happy-place. If I don't act soon, my fuzzy dissatisfaction is going to turn to full-bore adversity.

Time to find a new dime.