Foot Shadows

Sitting here late this afternoon with my stocking feet propped upon a desk, looking out of my hotel room window at rows of square little houses in the fading sunlight, I found myself marveling at the shadows cast by my feet upon the wall. Not because there is any profound truth to be revealed by such introspection, to be sure. Rather, it was a momentary distraction, a random thought I elected to put into words with the typing of these very letters. Has Jim lost his mind, you might wonder? I do not believe so, but of course who am I to say?

The nature of my job requires to me to write. And write. And write. I've made a career of finding ways to better articulate policy, process, concepts, requirements, guidance and a myriad of other documentation - all from a technical, professional slant. The negative, of course, is that it frequently leaves the well dry by the time I am able to carve out some moments for myself to write creatively. Like today: I finally have a few moments to post something to the blog, and the well is dry. In the past, one of the techniques I've used to break the logjam that is the so-called "writer's block" is to put to words exactly what I'm thinking or doing in a given moment. Hence, the fascination with foot shadows!

I don’t feel like commenting on politics, or sports, or space exploration, or even that errant gray hair that I thought I'd taken care of a couple days ago that still taunts me from my temple. Nor have I had time to surf online for that strange but true (ok, maybe true) story to share with anyone who may read this site. I'm not really in the mood to dwell on the deeply complicated issues of life, either.

So why, you may ask, am I dedicating so many words to a largely meaningless post without so much as a main point? Well, that is precisely the point! I find that on occasion, poking random holes in the walls of a dry well sometimes triggers a flow that restores my source.

Feel free to roll your eyes; I'm okay with that. Because in the end, I have accomplished my goal.