Hello Dear Dove,
It is heartwarming to know that you are there, reading and thinking about us although you do not have the time to write as you used to.
Please give my sincere best wishes to Coco who must be a happy girl at this time
. Perhaps you could bring us up-to-date about her circumstances when you return
from her wedding.
David Cao has been out here in Xinjiang to visit me while he also scouts out new
opportunities for his employers. He sure is a constant and sincere friend to me. Do you know that in my eyes her has become a more handsome man since I knew
him at Hongen, where we worked together for 18 months. He has confidence and knowledge now that he did not possess back as a younger man. He really is a fine
man, an example of how people should be.
You have written " Everyday for me seems the same. So while looking back, I even
don't know what I have completed besides routine job."
I can look back in my life to exactly the same feelings as you are describing.
I remember very little of my life from about 30 years of age to 40 years of age
. There was a regular work pattern, a routine that played out every day. There
was little challenge . Looking back it seems as if this time was lost, as if it never existed. 10 years in one's life is quite a lot of life to have lost!
This period ended with what is commonly called a "mid-life crisis" in my case.
This is not really a "crisis" but a time of reflection on what one has accomplished in one's life up to that time and what one would like to accomplish in the time remaining, in the working years left before retirement or a change in health
or disinterest sets in.
In my case I set in place a series of steps which have ultimately lead me to my
place in life here and now. That was not my intention. That was how it turned out. I also remember every step from that time onward.
At the risk of boring some of you I will get into some detail.
First: What was I actually doing all the time? How to find out?
I was the owner/manager of a medium-sized manufacturer of non-headed steel fasteners.
I got a small alarm clock and set it for 15 minute intervals. This is only 4 times an hour and is not as bothersome as it may first appear. I wrote down exactly what I had been doing each time the alarm sounded. It took less than a week to understand my problem.
I did not trust anyone. I was doing a lot of things that should have been done
by an assistant.
So, I chose a trustworthy assistant and began to instruct him as to exactly what
I wanted from him. Next, obvious failures in our methods and procedures began
to show up. The reasons for decisions I was taking were not so easily understood by anyone else. I was basing my decisions on information that was not readily
accessible to anyone else. We began to examine all facets of the company; inventories, sales-forecasts, machine/property maintenance, redundancies, employee training, safety-procedures. All this effort was to enable someone else to do much of what was keeping me occupied.
Purpose returned to my daily work. I began to look forward to each day.
I am reminiscing about my own situation so as to allow you the chance to consider where you are in your life. It is not worthwhile and in fact can be very upsetting to look back on your life and ponder what you could have done to change it
but didn't . Then it is too late. You cannot turn back the tide of time, all you can do is observe your environment from time to time and consider if you are
happy with the present conditions and if you are not content to consider how to
become content.
I think perhaps what happens is there are no goals set during this part of one's
life. We sit back on our chairs and drift along with the momentum we have already created. We have accomplished so many of the things we had yearned for, the
goals we had set. We are enjoying the results and time passes. Suddenly we notice the change of decades and wonder where the years went.
Why am I writing about this?
Because the opportunity to make a change in one's life is always present. In our everyday routines there are un-noticed events that can, if seen and acted upon
, take us into new fields of endeavour, into fresh paths of adventure, into unknown worlds. These doorways are almost invisible. They can be buried within conversations, meandering thoughts, telephone calls and TV programs; cloud shapes and children's questions. They poke their existence into our reality and are seen or missed. They are always there. Only when you are interested will they be
noticed. So ... notice them!
Take the time to daydream.
Drift in your thoughts through the "what might-have-beens" and the "what might-be" things that still may be possible.
You may be surprised at what you find! :-)
David