Belated Blessed Lughnasadh

Very, very belated Blessed Lughnasadh! Wow, this time it has really taken me sometime to post! Then again, this Sabbath coincided  with one of the most rushed days of the office, with reports to be sent, and people to be terrorized in order to get those reports done. I had been a little spooked myself as well, as I heard word that my old boss is moving the threads again to get me back, though this time he and his team would be moving to the building where I work now, away from the Moron Boss Lady. There are things I don't like about my new job, like the fact that I do feel my skills being wasted and my mathematical logic (and I'm not the big NUMB3Rs in this) being swept under the rug, but now from far the mirage of my old boss is fracturing, and it does upset me to see how the quality has plunged, how little questioning is going around. I have lots to think about and lots to ponder.

My friend Dragonfly took the chance and resigned to the company in the most recent "resigning promotion", which is this program where the company pays people to resign. This is the second such promotion in less than a year, and rumor has it, there will be more until the company manages to reduce the size of its payroll to half. Other companies would simply lay off people, but our company seems to be unable to do that, thus the costly procedure. I was surprised to learn that Dragonfly was doing so, and later on even more surprised that up until the last day she hadn't told her family. Times are hard - really hard - and the crisis is gripping the country, with little chances to get a job, but the place she was working at was a true hell, so yes, either she resigned or she would have been carted to the looney house.

This Sabbath has received us actually as we are reaping what we sow. Lughnasadh or Lammas marks the first harvest of three, when we finally start to see the fruits of our labour. It's a happy time, as it is always when we see that our work has finally been yielding results. On this Sabbath we can start appreciating, seeing just how good or how effective all that meditating and careful planning and hard working has been.

Now, in the light of the recent events, Lughnasadh also call us to meditation. As it marks the first harvest - again, first of three, so lets not consider it definitive - it marks also a moment to reviwe what we have done so far in the light of the results. Are the results what we have expected? Well, this is a good time to ponder whether our planning was right, whether we lacked more planning or more hard working (maybe both), if we were counting too much on luck or something else. These things we can ponder and learn from them for the next year. However, we must also consider the next two harvests because maybe our labour was on the type of crop that blooms later.

There is, however, something else to consider at this point. Maybe we have planned well, and have worked hard and diligently and yet our results aren't the ones we expected. Believe it or not - and this coming from an existentialist like me might be a shock - but not always everything is (entirely) our fault. Then Lughnasadh is the time for us to ponder whether we want to keep working these lands or these seeds, or if we shall make a change in our lives that would really take us where we want to be. Does it worth to remain with someone who won't appreciate our effort? Does it worth it to stay in a job that offers a dead end and where doing nothing yields the same result as busting your ass? Does it worth to keep up with a project or a group that eats up your time, feeds on your effort but then yields nothing? A friendship that demands, demands and leaves you feeling empty?

There are two more harvests ahead, but sometimes it's good to start now, with the first results, reviewing if you should either improve or go for a Plan B.