Cleaning out the "Compartments"

My farewell tour continued at work today.  Everyone has been very kind and the thoughts expressed have been humbling.  Throughout the day I caught myself thinking that it would be incredible if I shared my thoughts of appreciation and gratitude towards my co-workers more often so that it didn't take leaving a company to lift others as I have been lifted by other's comments the past few days .  I am going to work diligently at sharing more openly my appreciation to the team at SRSI.  I believe it matters and makes a difference.

I spent most of the day going through my office and cubicle and training room.  Thankfully, I am more organized than most, so I was able to get everything transferred over to others and get everything into order fairly easily.  What surprised me the most was the work to be done at the camper after work.  Everyone that has ever visited me at the camper remarks about how organized and clean everything is.  The other comment I often hear is how I live on so little.  But today I found out that wasn't reality.  When I started to pull everything out of all the little compartments throughout the camper I was shocked at what had been hidden.  I didn't even realize how much "stuff" I had accumulated in nearly four years.  So I threw a lot of items away and packed the rest of my "treasures" into the Suburban.  Actually, I filled the entire vehicle. 

As I was working, and organizing, and cleaning out the camper, I started to think about how it's a lot like our lives.  We often compartmentalize things, everything is put in its own little space.  We have our work compartment, our church compartment, our spouse compartment, and our parent compartment.  Often times we act different ways and even hide things so well that others wouldn't even know us in a different "compartment" than what they are used to seeing us in. 

I am guilty.  I can be very patient and understanding and helpful at work, and then when I get home some of that patience and helpfulness seem to go away.  I can listen to a stranger for long periods of time to try to understand and help to reach a solution for their problem.  But when I get home, I have been with my spouse for so long that I think I know what she is going to say so I try to help her finish her story.  In other words, sometimes I have more patience for a stranger or acquaintance than for the ones I love the most.

I have an incredible opportunity within the next 12 days. I will be making big changes professionally.  I get to work in a new leadership position, I get to work in a new industry, and I get to work with a new team.  But I think I will also make the best of this change to do some things differently on a personal level.  I am going to focus on being more patient and helpful at home.  I am going to try to listen more, to be more understanding, to be more loving, and to be praise my wife for all the wonderful things that she does.

Can you believe I had a George Foreman cooker in one of those compartments and never used it once in all that time?  It's very interesting what you can find in your compartments when you look hard enough.