Thursday, August 8, 2013

When Life Gives You Wormwood, Make Absinthe... Then Get Toasted

I read an obituary yesterday.  Normally I don't read them if I don't know the person who died, but this was unusual in that the person, who was a journalist, actually wrote her own obituary before her death.  So, wanting to know what she thought was important enough to be what were basically her last words, I read it.  And the sentence which stood out to me like a beacon on a dark hill was one that she wrote to her children:

"...always remember that obstacles in the path are not obstacles, they ARE the path."

This sentence hit me like the proverbial two-by-four, probably because it was one.  All I could think of was that Hekate (or Someone Out There) finally found someone who had the words to make it clear to me.

And it was definitely the right time for it.  This illumination came after receiving some rather devastating news from my director.   Due to various things having absolutely nothing to do with our department, we are going to have to move several people around, and the result is that I am losing my private office with the huge windows overlooking lawn, trees and sky.  Instead, I will be working in a shared office with no windows.

Now, to truly appreciate the extent of my devastation, this office was the last reason I still had for actually wanting to go to work.  No raises since 2007, increasing workloads and health care payments, boredom from being in the same venue for the last 15 years, and five years of frustration looking for a job where I can actually use my degrees have all really worn me down.  This room was the only bright spot, both literally and figuratively, left in my work day.  And now it's being taken away because someone in some other department wants to show they have clout.

This is where the wormwood and absinthe come in; they're the goth version of  "when life gives you lemons,  make lemonade".  If the obstacles ARE the path, then going around them is impossible; the only way to continue on is to go through them.  Very well, then.  And as Christine Jette says in her book, The Shadow Tarot, "There is no going over, under or around the Shadow; the only path to freedom is through the darkness."  Since I can no longer have the light at work, I shall embrace the shadows.  My new work space will be decorated as a haven of gothdom for me.  I'm looking over things that I have at home that I can bring in; I've already got a lovely picture of an antebellum skeleton lady in front of a broken-down mansion (that I bought for our front bathroom but didn't use) ready and waiting to be hung in my new space.  Here is the picture, from the Etsy shop of The Mighty Squirm, without the frame it's in now:

 

 Just think Scarlett O'Hara sitting on the lawn at Tara, only one hundred years later.  Isn't it incredible?? 

I'm also haunting Etsy and GothMart, and I plan to continue my bi-monthly trolling at EcoThrift. I'm going to make this new space SO incredibly goth that most people will be too scared to bother me, heheheh...


8 comments:

  1. That royally sucks but it *does* seem to be the current museum M. O., which doesn't make it better, just more understandable. It's really this kind of news that scares the tar out of me. *shiver*

    Ed just said something similar to me regarding my current situation. There's really no other way to go but through. And through you are going, so in the immortal words of Admiral Farragut, "Damned the torpedoes! FULL SPEED AHEAD!"

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    1. It wouldn't be so bad (maybe) if I WAS working in a museum, but I don't even have that... I work in the Financial Aid office at a state university. Major BLEAH...

      But I agree with the Admiral; if we're going down, let's go down with a REALLY BIG BANG! And maybe take a few of them with us. ;-)

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  2. Or ... maybe if you make it so over-the-top goth, they'll put you back in the office with the door so they can keep you hidden from sight, Lucretia! :o)

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    1. Hehehe, wouldn't THAT be ironic!!! Doubtful, but I love the idea! ;-)

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  3. I hope your idea works out for you. Please do keep in mind before you Goth up your office, that it could backfire on you; especially, if it unnerves your co-workers. That said, I would probably have the same attitude.

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    1. Thanks for the warning! Fortunately, I don't think it will be too much of an issue. The coworker in the office next door to my new spot is a witch, and all you have to do is walk into her office to know it! (Dark and spooky, with lots of weird stuff all over the place, plus she has white hair that she periodically highlights with red, pink, blue and various other shades.) My new space is at the end of the room farthest from the door, so unless someone is actually looking for ME, chances are they won't even notice my portion of the room. And they all know I'm weird, anyway... ;-)

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  4. To have an office without windows, is like being put in prison :(. I have been in that position before. I do hope that you will share the room with a pleasant person and that you can make it a cosy place to work at.

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    1. It certainly is like that! But I'm going to do my best to make it liveable... If there were windows in the room, this really wouldn't be such a horrible thing. It's weird, I hate being IN the sun, but I like light, airy rooms with windows and sunlight.

      And fortunately, the person I'll be sharing with is VERY nice, and we do the same job, so that part is fine with me.

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