Walk #238: The Oak Limb...

After a fine dinner of lamb, basmati rice and fresh green beans, I headed out with my dog.

Sometime in the last twenty four hours, this branch of an Oak tree fell. In fact, I took Kylie and Jazzy's photo quite near it yesterday.

The branch sits on top of a phone line. We don't have any power lines up here, so there is no danger of a fire from it.

But still. What if it had broken when I was taking the girls' photo yesterday? Sometimes life just comes down to a matter of timing and luck.

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An addendum. (Written the morning after my walk.)

I've been wrestling with figuring out a way to make more money. Before my walk, Hunter called me with praise for his new job. He invited me to write the Director of the Unit, as they are hiring (and gave me the e-mail address and phone number). I've already met this person, as I gave them a tour of the unit I am currently working on. This Director remembers me, and would like to hire me.

Psychiatric Nursing jobs are going the way of the dinosaur. There are fewer and fewer places to practice my craft every year. Jobs are getting tighter. Budgets cut. Part of the slide towards barbarism, in my view.

So to be part of a new unit, with even more handsome pay than I make right now (it would take care of all our unexpected, financial difficulties), is more than tempting. The problem: The new psychiatric unit is with the military. On an Air Force base.

It would be literally, "going out on a limb", to take this job. Sometimes limbs crash. That was what I was mulling over when I saw the limb.

And then a dream last night. Bad dreams rarely happen to me. Most nights I happily dream about this and that. They are entertaining and fun. But not last night.

I dreamt I was sent a letter (the e-mail?) by a serial killer, every time the serial killer had another victim. The letter would be addressed to me. I awoke, in a sweat, having received piles of letters from the serial killer.

Of course, the meaning of the dream is quite clear: Do not compromise your values by going to work for the Empire. Don't take a job with the military. Do you really want to be reminded of death every day, Allan?

The message of the limb across the phone line? Do Not Call. The message of the letters from the serial killer? Do Not E-mail Them.

I won't apply.

It is one thing to surmise messages from unusual events in nature (like a tree limb across your path). It is quite another to listen to your dreams. To listen to what the good ole "subconscious" is telling you. When you have both nature and subconscious telling you something, it is best to take heed. Run. Put away those plans and thoughts.