I feel like I am hip deep in molasses. This is one of the biggest transitional points in my professional career, and my path is as clear as a foggy day in San Francisco. When I break my karmic inertia, I’ll find the exit and do something great with my life.
Five months ago, I quit my dead-end job at a Catholic school. Now I’m finishing up a romance novel I wrote with my wife, and have joined Toastmaster’s international speech competition. The job hunt isn’t going as planned, so I’m implementing Plan B, C, D, and E.
I made a little altar for my Pomodoro timer, and surrounded it with relevant symbols.
Fortunately I have a Magic Pomodoro altar to focus my attention. It has a timer surrounded by objects of personal meaning. A kitchen timer sits at the heart of my daily mono-tasking ritual. When it’s ticking, I’m mono-tasking. That means I’m working on one thing, and only one thing. I’ve surrounded it with personalized icons that support my productivity.
These include Nordic runes etched onto semi-precious stones. They are the same runes J.R.R. Tolkien used as the dwarven alphabet in the Lord of the Rings, and are the origin of many of the letters in the English alphabet.
A couple of weeks back, I blindly drew four of these stones. Little did I know how relevant their wisdom would be during these challenging times. Lucky me.
The rune Jera, J is the rune of yearly cycles. Its wisdom is that you plant seeds in the spring and harvest your plants in the fall. I’m definitely planting the seeds of a new life, as I learn new skills that will hopefully bear fruit. I just have to keep writing like a fiend and practicing my public speaking at every opportunity I get.
The next rune on my altar is Hagalaz. It became the letter H and means hail. It is difficult times, of chaos and destruction. Shit is hitting the fan for me. Fortunately, nothing lasts forever. I just have to hunker down and endure.
Nauthiz became the letter N. It is the rune of need. It means that wealth is scarce, so I need to watch my resources. I am tightening my belt and really watching how I spend/invest my money.
The final rune is Elhaz and it became Z. It is elk antlers and is a rune of protection. It is a reminder to stay clear-minded. Don’t get paranoid and freak out. I’ll get through this.
Runes are an essential part of my mono-tasking ritual. They don’t have supernatural power, but they are archetypal symbols that are relevant to our modern life. I got into them after reading Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods”, because I like their wisdom.
Coincidentally, their wisdom has hit the spot. They were exactly what I needed right now to fortify my resolve.
This completes day 2 of writing a 500-word blog post.
