Sylvia's Journal

Yesterday was my first day at work on my new job. It was an odd sensation because at first sight nothing had changed: Monday is my telecommuting day. But instead of telecommuting to Cambridge, I telecommuted to Kabul.

That this state of affairs was neither here nor there was obvious from my dreams: I was on my way to Baghdad, a long journey by foot with much baggage. Axel and I ended up in a transition place, a camp of sorts. Someone remarked that they smelled an overheating battery and that is when I discovered I did not have my black backpack, the one I usually take to work which has my computer and an extra battery in it. I experienced a sense of loss and tried hard to imagine doing my work without that backpack and its tools inside.

Bill Bridges had dedicated his life to helping people navigate transitions, so, in this time of transition, I go to him for advice. Bridges taught me about the neutral zone, the time after the ending and before the beginning. In the circus this is the moment when the aerialist lets go of the trapeze she was on and before she catches the other one. It looks like a free fall and it feels like one but it isn’t. The new trapeze is on its way.

Bridges suggests I think through my transition by focusing on my stuff and what I want to do with it. He calls it ‘Guidance for Moving.’ Even though I don’t have a moving allowance, it’s a good mental exercise and it helped me to interpret my dream. Air shipment is for the important things I will need at my new location immediately. By sea I ship the things I want to take along but that are not as important as those requiring fast transit. I will put in storage all things I don’t want to discard but that I don’t want to use just now. And then there is disposal: the things that it is time to get rid of and leave behind.

In the Cambridge office I already disposed of 22 years of files and papers that I have not looked at in years. It was a little scary but also a relief. With my Cambridge office emptied, someone else moved in and I don’t have an office anymore. This makes my home office the locus of my transition. I get to work from there as much as I want, enjoying my last three weeks of Lobster Cove during one of the most beautiful times of the year. I surely will miss that first sight of Lobster Cove when I get up in the morning, always dazzling, rain or shine.

Yesterday was also my first visit to the physical therapist. She took measures and wrote down numbers and percentages about my range of motion. She commented that it was pretty good and that the incisions had healed very well. I received my first set of instructions: back into the sling (for another 2 weeks) and 4 sets of exercises, with icing in the evening, just before bedtime.