“Move your seat up I’m all cramped back here.”-Frank “It won’t move!”-Estelle “There’s a mechanism you just PUSH IT!”-Frank “Dad can’t you sit sideways? We are five blocks from the house.”-George “Sideways? Like an ANIMAL! Because of HER I have to sit like an ANIMAL! SERENITY NOW! SERENITY NOW!”-Frank “Serenity now?”-George “The doctor gave me a relaxation tape for my blood pressure. When I get stressed the man on the tape says to say SERENITY NOW!”-Frank “Did he say to yell it?”-George “The man wasn’t specific.”-Frank “What happened to the screen door? It blew off again.”-George “I TOLD YOU TO FIX THAT THING!”-Estelle “SERENITY NOW!!!!”-Frank
If you are a big fan of Seinfeld, then you’d get the serenity now moment. When describing my quiet time in my car listening to music, Jim jokingly referred to it as having one of those moments.
All kidding aside, we all need a quiet place to just be, to go inside ourselves and to choose to think, or not think. Or maybe just sing a happy tune, scream at the top of our lungs, whatever. My time during my lunch, it’s a preemptive strike against negativity. Every day I go to work inside a little kiosk, and quite honestly it’s a tight little space where we are often bumping into each other. Not to mention an endless amount of beeping going off to let us know the creamers need to be changed, the espresso shots adjusted, the sanitized water needs to be changed, the coffees expired etc., and if you consider Pavlov’s theory, that you get a conditioned response to a conditioned stimuli, after awhile those little beeps and buzzers become a catalyst for negative energy.
What’s the point? Well, when I go to lunch, I am still usually in a pretty good frame of mind, and I want to keep it that way. On top of the tight quarters, and endless beeping, there’s the many moods that get brought to work by both employees and customers, so to just step away and just be quiet for a bit can be a life saver. So I choose to use my car. One reason is because the alternative means to either sit outside with the smokers, or sit in the break room with the others, and the conversations there usually take on endless bitching about work. So, I either sit in my car, or I strap on the IPOD and just go to my inner space and detox a bit if you will.
This time “alone,” allows me to come back from my back feeling rejuvenated, ready to take on the next 2-3 hours that are left in my shift. It is those last hours that are usually the hardest on my body, so I need everything including a great mental attitude to get me through them. So while it’s not a serenity now moment, it is definitely serenity, and I am grateful for every minute of it.
