Your Job Isn’t That Secure

While having breakfast in a restaurant this morning, I listened as someone lost his job. I won’t mention the town, as that scene happens in any town. Probably not over a rooty-tooty pancake ‘n’ ham, but the instant it became clear what was happening, I understood why this was being done over breakfast: No office scene, no work disrupted, and breakfast is the cheapest meal of the day. It wouldn’t even cost the company a lot to get rid of the employee.

While I was eavesdropping on this life-shattering conversation, it became obvious that the boss had done this more than once. He kept repeating the same phrases.

“You’ll get over this, it’s not the end of your life.”
“You’ll find another job quickly.”
“You’ll look back on this and laugh.”
No one was laughing at the time, and the employee was in shock. He kept citing statistics of the fine work he had done, the deadlines he had met, the extra work he had taken on and completed successfully. It didn’t matter. Nothing he could say made a difference. The decision to have him gone was made before he arrived to meet his boss for breakfast. I wondered where he would go for the rest of the day, how he would tell his family.
Listening in, I remembered one of my clients telling me that she was indispensable. I smiled as I listened to the certainty, and two months later, I nodded my head as she cried, “They can’t do this to me. I’m the only ones who know how to run the program.” And yet, the program ran, and she was out on her ear, out of a job.

It can happen to you. Somewhere, someone reading this and smiling. Secure. You work hard. You are really indispensable. You have traded family life and balance for the job security. You gave up nights with your kids to cement security with your company.

That’s what the guy at breakfast thought. That’s what I thought right before I was laid off.
Everyone is replaceable. The company that demands your time and your life and your loyalty does not return the same. They pay you and that, in their minds, is all they owe you. America is all about money and dedication and being “passionate” about your career, but less so about the other side of the coin.

I wish our corporate culture were a bit more passionate about loyalty, and caring and being reasonable. So, while you are reading this, what would you do if your job disappeared today?
If you are a perfectionist, this is particularly for you. . .perfectionism is about control, and you are far less in control that you think.

If you don’t have a plan about what to do if you are dumped, now might be a good time to think about it. How much of a financial cushion do you have? How much would you need if it took you 3 months to find a job? What jobs other than the one you are doing now are you qualified for? What wold it take to make you competitive in your field? When was the last time you updated your resume?

Take a look at your co-workers today. One of them will be gone in three months.

–Quinn McDonald is a life- and creativity coach. She won’t be dumped from her job because she owns the company. But she keeps changing her goals. See what she does at QuinnCreative.com Photos: pancakes: myspace.com, drawing: furiousball.com

Trouble with “previous” and “next”

WordPress does it, and so does Yahoo. So I’ll have to adjust. It’s counterintuitive for me, though, and I think the people who live in this time warp are not using a Mac, and live in a non-time-based world.

Here’s what I’m talking about: When I’m moving through posts and emails, I think of “next” as those more recent than the page I am on, and “previous” as those earlier in time. So, for me, my next email will come soon, and my previous post was yesterday’s.

Not so with WordPress and Yahoo. If I have moved backwards into March’s posts, clicking on “next” moves me further back, into Februrary’s posts. Clicking on “previous” means the previous page, pushing me into the future, into April’s posts.

The reason, I suppose, is that “next” and “previous” don’t refer to the time the posts were written, but which page they are on. To me, this means that the coders, or IT developers are not thinking of how their audience uses the software, but how they see it. A programmer sees information on pages, and the placement of the pages themselves are important. Most users, I would guess, see the date and time they wrote it as important, or perhaps the content, which doesn’t come up as an issue at all.

If you are looking for a post, or a check, or a file on your computer, and you can’t use content as a locater, you will use the date you wrote it, often in conjunction with other dates or events.

“Let’s see, I wrote that right after I saw Atonement, but before we painted the kitchen,” is a time statement. I can’t imagine someone saying, “I stored that on the third page back from the beginning,” because that isn’t a set place. The more posts you add, the farther back the posts slip.

It’s an information design question, and the user-friendly ones will stay time-based. We can use the arrows to move to the last page seen, but “previous” should retain the meaning it’s always had–”before this moment in time.”

Image: book, “The Caldendar” from www.ephemeris.com

–Quinn McDonald is a writer and certified creativity coach. See her work at QuinnCreative.com (c) 2008, Quinn McDonald All rights reserved.

Perfectionist Reads a Book

A friend recommended a non-fiction book, a scholarly work on culture clash in America. Being trained as a folklorist, the idea was appealing. The book was well-written, but it didn’t move forward. “Too much spinning, not enough weaving,” I thought. Or, to borrow an idea from another obsession of mine–perfume, “good notes, bad blending.” Had the book been a perfume, I would not have purchased a full bottle, but it wasn’t a scrubber either.

Last night, I noticed I’ve been reading it since December. It’s about 300 pages, and I haven’t managed to flog myself through it. Each night, I’ll read a few pages at bedtime, then put it down. Each time I buy a book I’d rather read, It gets put at the bottom of the stack growing by the side of my bed.
When the stack got precariously high, I had to admit that I wasn’t enjoying the nonfiction culture-clash book. I felt I was reading the same 50 pages over and over. Kvetch, kvetch, kvetch, I thought. But I’m a recovering perfectionist, so how could I abandon a book? No, I must finish it. I tortured myself for another week.

The habit of completing what you start is a good one. But when it comes to books, it doesn’t apply. It’s not virtuous to finish a book that you started in good faith when that book is turning you to a curmudgeon. Drop the book. Quit reading it. Abandon it. Leave it in a basket on someone’s doorstep. Just because it seemed intriguing, just because someone recommended it does not bind your honor to reading every last page.

Tonight I read the last chapter. It was much like the others I’d read. I didn’t miss the 100 pages I’d skipped. And then I cheerfully, grinningly, reached for Anne Lamott’s book, Grace (Eventually), which I hope to enjoy a great deal, for every page.

–Quinn McDonald is a writer and certified creativity coach. See her work at QuinnCreative.com (c) 2008. All rights reserved. Image: school.discoveryeducation.com

Choosing a Wabi Sabi Life

The moon lay on her back in the sky, her thin ivory rim tipped up. Cupped gently in her hollow was the indigo sky, dotted with stars. Two straight lines stitched past the horns of the moon. They were contrails, side-lit by the bright, reflected light. Next to the contrails is the constellation Orion. I always look for it when I walk at night. Often I can just see the belt. Tonight I could see the entire constellation: the powerful Hunter standing next to the river Eridanus with his two hunting dogs, Canis Major and Canis Minor, fighting Taurus, the bull.

I was walking at night. The sidewalks were deserted. In the distance, I could hear a train whistle calling as it crossed the street grade and raced into the blank and mountainous desert. Who is on the train? Where are they going at night, where will they wake up?

In the next block the intense smell of orange blossom washed over the block walls that provide privacy. I could just see the blossoms on an orange tree. I know the smell from perfumes, but no perfume has such a rich, deep green smell that carries the hope of next summer’s glowing ember oranges. I touched one of the polished, shiny dark leaves. I pulled one of the blossom branches to me, and, making careful that there were no bees in the bunch, touched the flowers to my tongue. The neroli oil washed over my tongue in a sweet and bitter wave. It is as if I had bitten into a perfumed orange. The branch sprang away from me.

The houses have their curtains drawn. I could hear faint sounds from the TVs. Someone was watching explosions and laughing. In the next house someone was not making it on American Idol. I kept walking through the shining night air. This was my gift alone.

I have chosen this life–right now it is lonely and hard. But walking through the night with all five senses is a feast I find indescribably life affirming. I feel alive and aware. I am in one moment at a time. It is an enormous gift to see all this, to taste it, touch it, to hear the sounds of the desert at night. I am grateful. The people who are in front of the TV will never know this, but they are satisfied, too. They don’t want to be walking outside in the dark. I’m glad for their comfort and glad for my own experience.

And in that second of peace, I know the heart of wabi-sabi.

Images: Orion: space.about.com  Moon: www.andrill.org

–Quinn McDonald is a writer and certified creativity coach. See her work at QuinnCreative.com

Control and Change

Most people hate change. It makes them rethink their lives, their choices and maybe even start off in a whole new direction. Some change is bigger than others, of course, but all change creates a reaction. We can’t control change, but we can choose our reaction. The important part of change is that it is inevitable. We can’t control it, the more we struggle, the more we notice our own futility. I’ve seen people fight change as if it were a mugger. Change usually wins.

This morning I saw a great example of the inevitability of change. It helped a lot as a way of seeing how change works and what to look for.

On my morning walk, I noticed a house with a big blue agave surrounded by flowers. I don’t know the local flowers yet, but they look a lot like Greek Windflowers, or anemones. Because it was early morning, the yellow and orange flowers were closed like a fist. The area around the agave looked polka dotted.

Time passed, shadows shifted and change came. I drove by again at noon, and the flowers glowed from a block away. Fully open, they made the agave look smaller. The flowers opening is change, and inevitable. I could have yelled at them, but they would have still opened. I could have threatened them, could have said I’d bang my head on the sidewalk, blamed them for opening, but they would have opened anyway. They are plants and obey their nature.

The gift of change is that we can see things from a new perspective. The cost of change is that it demands attention, and maybe more change. If we see the grass is too high, it has changed, and we may decide to mow the lawn, another change.

Change is a link in a chain of events. We may not control the links or the length, but we control the materials the links are made of. Choose your materials well.

–Images/Story: Quinn McDonald (c) 2008 All rights reserved. Quinn McDonald is a writer and trainer in communication topics. She is also a certified creativity coach.

Collage Background 3

Backgrounds for your collages are all around. Train your eyes to see backgrounds, and the world will fill up with them.

Take photographs to save the idea, and then print them on a variety of papers–photographic papers will give you a stiff, glossy surface.

Printing them on copy paper will give you a softer look, but be careful–ink jet ink will run with glue. Spray it with several light layers of fixative first.

Print them on Lazertran or transparency paper. Print them on heavier paper and paint ink over them.

Or just leave them alone and use them as the beautiful backgrounds they are.

From top to bottom, the images are:

1. Rock wall with a dried vine, taken at the Washington Arboretum in Washington, D.C.

2. Close up of a letter stained with tea and printed on Lazertran.

3. Close up of a sidewalk stained by grass fertilizer and very hard water, Mesa, AZ.

4. Close up of salt-stained staircase in Washington, D.C.

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Images and background instructions (c) Quinn McDonald, 2008. All rights reserved.

Quinn McDonald is a collage artist and a certified creativity coach who teaches collage art and visual journaling. See her work at QuinnCreative.com

Two Wolves in Us

This story is not mine. I received it as an email the other day, from my friend Allan, a freelance financial writer in Vermont. Generally, email stories get spiked before I open them, but this one is worth another read. So here it is:

Two Wolves
One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside all people. He said, “My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all.

One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: “Which wolf wins?”
The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

–Quinn McDonald is a writer and certified creativity coach. See her work at QuinnCreative.com

Wabi Sabi Dessert

When I saw this dessert in the Los Angeles Times, I couldn’t believe it would work. When I tried it, it was a great surprise and delight–it works perfectly. The dessert is Meyer Lemon Posset and the recipe, while ancient, appeared in a modern version in the L.A. Times courtesy of Regina Schramblings.

A posset was originally a drink developed the Middle Ages. It was made with cream, sugar, spices, and some sort of spirit, often ale. The alcohol would thicken the drink. Over time, recipe got more complicated, with eggs and flavorings added. Now it’s come back to its original simple creation, and we can be thankful for it.

It’s the perfect dessert for Valentine’s Day–it’s worth the calorie splurge. It has a heavenly tart, fragrant, and sweet taste, and an exquisite texture. And it’s not hard to make. Three ingredients combine to create the perfect meaning of the word ’synergy.’ Cream, sugar and Meyer lemons. Together they taste so much better than each ingredient on its own.

Why wabi sabi? Because as a recipe, it has all the elements of wabi sabi–it honors the old, the simple, and is the joy of its creation. It doesn’t take long to make, but there are no shortcuts, and each step has a special joy. It requires waiting and the wait is worthwhile. Meyer Lemon Posset is a perfect wabi sabi dessert.

Meyer lemons are also called Key Limes, and they are the same citrus fruit that goes into Key Lime Pie. If you live within easy reach of a Hispanc market, they are also called Colada Limon. A Meyer lemon looks like a small lime–it’s round, not oval, and green, with a finer textured skin than a standard Persian lime. When left on the tree, they will become yellow, but they are most often picked, packed and shipped while mostly green. They have a softer flavor than Persian limes, intensely tropical limey and tart, rather than sour.

The recipe
1 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup superfine sugar
1/4 cup Meyer lemon juice

Method
Combine cream and sugar and heat over low heat, stirring, till it simmers and sugar is dissolved. No need to boil.
Cool the mixture to room temperature, stirring occasionally.
While the mixture is cooling, juice enough Meyer lemons (about 5) to create 1/4 cup juice. Use the pulp, but remove the seeds.
Combine the juice into the cooled cream mixture, stir thoroughly and immediately pour into small bowls for individual serving. Chill for at least 4 hours to allow the mixture to set up. It will have the consistency of sour cream, and will be a lovely ivory color.

Serving suggestion: you can certainly eat it the way it is. You can top it with fresh or frozen fruit. Blueberries add a nice color contrast, mangoes create a taste explosion. If you can’t bear the calories, you can also serve it in smaller portions by putting together some perfect berries and putting a generous dollop of posset over the fruit.

No matter how you serve it, eat it slowly, breathing fully between bites to get the fragrance into your head for maximum enjoyment.

–Images: Key limes: thaifood.about.com Posset: Quinn McDonald
–Quinn McDonald is a writer and creativity coach. She lives in Arizona and wishes her house in Virginia would sell. While she’s waiting for her chef husband to sell the house, she’s rediscovering her own cooking skills, including this dessert recipe. See her work at QuinnCreative.com (c) 2008 All rights reserved.

Fighting to Change

Even when you want to change, it isn’t easy. What makes change hard? Two major factors: yourself and others. The rest is easy. When you decide to change, you have your past to wrestle with. You choose the path to change and suddenly your inner voice pipes up. “What’s so wrong with who you are now?” “Love yourself the way you are, change is a sign of self-hatred.” “Can you really keep up this behavior?”

If you want to change a habit, you’ll have to substitute the new behavior for about two month. That’s as long as it will take you to establish the new habit in place of the old. No doubt about it, they will be the longest two months of your life. You will invent a thousand reasons to go back to the old behavior–it’s your birthday, you just started a diet, you are stressed, now is not a good time. But like having a baby, there is never a perfect time, you have to gear up, crank up your determination and get busy.

Just when you do, your friends will start chipping away at your resolve. They will give you excuses to fail. They will tell you they like you the way you are. They will whine that you don’t need to change. Why are your friends so focused on sabotage? Because if you change, they will have to change. They will have to get to know the new you, they will have to change the way they treat you . And your friends don’t want to change. It’s too much work. It is a lot less work to complain until you quit changing.

Your friends can be persistent and threatening. Most people don’t like confrontation, and they do like their friends, so they cave in and go back to being “normal.” And there goes the path to success.

If you are determined to change, tell your friends you plan ahead of time and enlist their help. Ask them to support you before the chorus of complaints begins. Often asking for support not only makes friends understand that this is important to you, it helps you be clear about what you want. And talking about the change helps you be clear about what you want for your future.

That doesn’t mean your friends will always support you, but it gives you a better start. And a good start is the best way to start toward a good finish.

–Image: www.triathletemag.com

–Quinn McDonald is a life coach and certified creativity coach. See her work at QuinnCreative.com (c) 2008 All rights reserved.

Tutorial: Monochromatic Collage

Working with just one color is a study in shifts and changes, a challenge in training your eye. But the work is rich, and the rewards many. One of the most amazing parts of this work is to see the effect in a changing light. Shadows, highlights and shading creates a display you can watch as the sun moves through your day. Try viewing your work under different lights and at different distances from the light source. You’ll be delighted at the different look you can achieve from one card, just by changing the light source.

Both of these cards are monochromatic. Made on 90-lb. recycled paper, the card background is plain white. Not the bright blue-white of sketching paper, but a simple, matte white.

Fold the paper in thirds, trimming to fit a standard envelope. Then open the paper, and place it so the back of the card is at your upper left. (If you are right handed, try it with the back of the card on your upper right).

Using an X-acto™ knife, cut in freehand waves from the top corner to about halfway across the bottom edge of the paper. In other words, the bottom edge of the paper should be the shortest part, about half as long at the top edge.

Now refold the card. It will be in an accordion fold, with the tallest part in the back.

Cut squiggles, triangles and other shapes from other shades of white paper. You will be surprised at how many shades of white you can find without using paint. Washi papers are creamy white, photocopy papers are blue-white, pages from old books are almost tan.

In monochromatic collages, you can use several shades, even if you can’t do the same thing with fully saturated colors.

Arrange them in interesting patterns. In the two cards shown, the triangles become trees, a larger circle of natural washi becomes the moon, squiggles of white paper printed with black become shadows and hills.

Once you find a pleasing arrangement, use a small brush dipped in diluted glue or liquid matte medium, paint the back of the entire squiggle and apply it, glue side down, on the card. Try not to reposition it, as the glue will leave a visible mark.

Note: Never glue on your cutting mat. It will ruin the mat. Use the back of photocopies you are going to toss out. Glue one piece and move down the sheet, so you don’t wind up with glue on the front of the piece your are gluing.

When gluing triangles or circles, be careful what side you want to glue. Sometimes you want to glue the front of a triangle onto the back of a card. You won’t need a lot of glue. When you are done, stand the card upright to let it dry. When it is completely dry, press lightly under a heavier book. Do not press in a book press, as the shorter pages will imprint on the longer pages.

–Quinn McDonald is an artist and writer. She teaches several art and journaling classes at the Mesa Art Center. See her work at QuinnCreative.com