Tuesday, March 07, 2007 @8:31 PM
Hola Doctor Linda ~ It sounds like you are experiencing a kind of heavenly type of existence with all the flowers.
I have been going through my own version of petty office politics, but am still coming out ahead. I mainly just concentrate on the clients, building up staff-client relations for myself and basically do what I see needs to be done with little or no supervision. Keep it simple, yet comprehend that complexities do exist in connected reality.....
Suffice it to say that a relapse can take many forms and have various manifestations.
Recovery from substance addiction, in this case chemical dependency, will oblige us to be honest in all our relations, open and forthcoming in our ways and entails a basic integrity in one's character. You see recovery is more than just a mere period of sobriety time. It involves our exhibitng a true honest humane character that stands as testimony of our wellness.
Bouquets of Blessings, Your Faithful Brother Peter
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Linda Olsvig-Whittaker <olsvig2000@yahoo.com> wrote:
++++++++++++++++
Email= sacranative@yahoo.com
Linda Olsvig-Whittaker <olsvig2000@yahoo.com> wrote:
Hi Everyone,
It's springtime in Israel, and for once this has been an extraordinarily pleasant week--I think, mainly because I was outdoors two days of the five and the other days nobody else was in the office!
The annual iris count was held on Mt. Gilboa last Monday and I volunteered to help, even though it meant getting up at 3 am to get to Gilboa at 8 am. It was worth the schlep. Not only was our census area a carpet of annual flowers in bloom, but the Gilboa iris was in full bloom and abunant.
Add to that perfect weather and a congenial crew of botanists, and I couldn't ask for more. The day on Gilboa was really good for my soul. I need to get in the field more than I do.
Recharged, I went back to the office on Tuesday and finished a poster which I need for the landscape ecology conference in Holland next summer. It has to be sent to the Dutch organizers as a pdf file by the end of the month so we are in good time.
Wednesday, I went downtown to get results of my blood tests and see a facio-maxillary surgeon about the scar tissue around my mouth from last January's fall from a ladder. Blood tests show I am still anemic and it's probably part of getting my thyroid disorder back under control, but it means another conversation with my family doctor to figure out what to do next. The surgeon looked at my scars and prescribed more surgery to trim off the excess scar tissue so my mouth and cheek regain some flexibility. (That would have scared me before my trip to the emergency ward, but after getting stitched up once, I realize Jerusalem's Hadasseh Hospital is terrific at dealing with wounds. God knows they got enough practice over the years.)
Thursday, another trip, this time to Eshtaol via the lovely Ayala Valley, where I was once again amused to see a busload of pre-Easter Christian pilgrims collecting small stones from the stream bed where David got his stones to kill Goliath. This time of year there will almost always be people picking up stones there. Wonder what they do with them......The Shefela (foothills of the Judean Mountains) are sweet this time of year, ideal weather, lots of flowers.
Forestry conference on Park Britannia, where we did our BioHab field exercise in February, and the whole conference was buzzing with BioHab. The forestry service is committing itself to use this method we taught, and I had to gather up my courage and talk to a lot of people in the conference. (My heart is always in my mouth when I have to speak Hebrew in public. My Hebrew is so bad that I have to struggle to be clear, and anyway I am terrified of public speaking.) I managed, and it looks like we have to do another training session for people at the end of April.
This looks like an idea that caught fire. Wish I could do that in my own organization more often but office politics keep me from being as effective there. It works better when I'm an outsider. (Does that seem illogical? It works like this--if I pay attention to somebody's ideas that means I am showing respect, and if I show respect, I lose power over that person. So within an office, people do not show respect to anyone except their superiors, whether they really respect them or not. Hence ideas that come from below have the proverbial snowball's chance--paying attention to somebody's ideas is like giving them a promotion, God forbid.)
I used to struggle to introduce innovative ideas in my workplace until I figure this dynamic out. Why waste energy? So I do my own thing, introduce ideas now if I feel like it, and people can use them or not, as they bloody well please. I no longer care either way, it's not worth the frustration. It is kinda fun sometimes when something I started outside comes back to my organization in a big way and they look stupid because they have been studiously ignoring it at home.....
Well, never mind that. Stupid government bureaucrats do not need to disturb my enjoyment of all this spring activity. I'm just basking in the attention I'm getting from our Forestry Service and I do know it will curve back and whack my own organization on the head, which makes me even happier about it.....
shabbat shalom,
Linda
--
Posted By Linda Olsvig-Whittaker to Shabbat Shalom - Jerusalem at 3/23/2007 07:46:00 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment