Sundown Marathon 2010

And they shall know No Fear

Their feet shall be swift like the winds, their endurance like the endless tides,
their fortitude like steel, and their morale unshakable, the fiery souls of immortals piercing the misty night.

With their minds at peace, their pace in check, hearts beat in unison, and they shall stride in harmony across the moonless blight.

The winds will rise, the rain beats down, their thighs will burn, their pace will slow, but they’ll never be broken, and they shall know no fear.

And with the crack of dawn they return as one, the first and the last man march abreast, silhouettes against the horizon’s first light. The standard bearer waves his flag, and the crowds roar in delight, as the runners end their triumphic flight.

Setback

Sitting in my room,
strumming on my own
my guitar shared the pain.
All the same old tunes, but different from before.
No pick was used, just the flat of my thumb,
producing a muffled downcast tune,
not assertive, not insistent.
Slower than the usual pace, kind and forgiving,
as befitted this humbled state.

Devoid of lyrics, as none were needed.
Only the lonely chords, soft and melocholic,
with haunting silence between breaks.

Slowly it emptied my mind,
and along came the peace.
Soon sleep shall come, and with new hope brings the morrow...

The Perfect Relationship

A man was looking for the perfect woman.

He kept searching.

Finally he found her,

but there was one problem.

She was looking for the perfect man...

When relationships fall out, stung individuals often feel their partner had changed, had lost the qualities which first attracted them; When employees leave the company, they tend to say things weren’t the same as before, it’s no longer the company they used to enjoy working in.

I had a revelation: Our other half did not change/The Company had always been the same. The person we first fell in love with; the wonderful company we thought we joined; they didn’t exist in the first place. It was a figment of our own self delusion.

We all want the partner of our dreams, or to join the perfect company. We want it so badly that our subconscious paints a rosy picture. Being optimistic creatures, when uncertain, we see the best aspects of a new situation. We over-exaggerate them in our heads, and then end up disappointed when reality sinks in.
Which is why many relationships fail beyond the honeymoon phase*

Being aware prepares us for the awakening. It sets realistic expectations, takes us down to earth. We learn to accept one another’s imperfections. When we commit to a relationship, we accept our partner in total, both the strengths, and the shortcomings.

*Similarly defined as the honeymoon in Culture Shock

Fare thee well, for the end is near

keep floundering until the bitter end, and die in pitiful futility

And I dare not raise my head to look upon, that which has come to bring my end.
I shivered in cold awkward fear, and would turn tail and flee, had my body obeyed me.
My right arm heeds not, and my legs turn numb, I all but spasmed a little, which was all that’s left in me.

Bemirthed by my desperation, it glanced upon me and laughed. A laughter so hollow, more devoid of humor, than a corpse’s final stare.
“Finish me” I muttered, the last of what my crushed spirit could muster. “Finish me I say, End it now” a final show of defiance and nothing more.
But its capacity for cruelty, of this world it came not. The end it did not bring, instead unto my mind's eye it burned, the vision of what the end will finally bring.

And then in the dark it left me, knowing, and knowing the certainty. The many moons to anticipate, all the frightful more made the wait.

Downsizing with Grace

From The Straits Times - Sat Feb 20 2010

Downsizing with Grace
(If layoffs are your organization's only solution, do it with compassion)
Extracts:

Both 'survivors' and displaced workers also experience tremendous emotional and psychological trauma.
Companies therefore have to ensure that they develop appropriate and well thought out plans, before implementing the downsizing process and even more importantly, after the downsizing process is complete, to meet these challenges.
How you treat the people who leave and the people who remain is crucial. How downsized employees are treated directly affects the morale and retention of valued, high performing employees who remain.

Critical decisions
Downsizing is often executed with a brisk, callous efficiency that leaves laid-off employees angry and surviving employees feeling helpless and demotivated.
They produce a work environment of withdrawal, risk averse decision making, severely impaired morale, and excessive finger pointing.

Be Respectful
Many poorly executed lay-offs treat employees like children. Information is withheld and doled out unwillingly. How laid-off employees are treated is how surviving employees assume they may be treated.
When they see the company treating laid-off employees poorly, they will start looking for a better place to work, fearing their heads will be next to roll.

-Article by Chris Fenney, co-founder and director of Training Edge International.
www.trainingedgeasia.com