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Someday

 

Many of my longstanding friends will remember the personalized license plate I had on my teal colored ’95 Mustang GT coupe. I displayed it with pride as I put about 13 K into the car to make it one of the fastest there was.  I knew that Someday I would have to meet the reality of my life and face the consequences as they fall and this plate symbolized my ultimate fate as I grew older. We all have a Someday and we all have to face the fact that we have to deal with the certainty of who you are, where you have been and what you have become. It sounds simple but it is quite a journey and exploration once you take the time to look at it carefully.

My conscience has always been my guide. Although that doesn’t mean I did the right things for the right reasons, it is what it is. I did what I did and mixed with emotion and regrets, I stand by my way of life. I could quote the lyrics of many songs that use the title “Someday” as it is as common as any other song but the reality and the force it impacts you or me or those around me is really different and complex to explain. We all have memories and Somedays can shape them and make it a dream come true. The problem was my mind was not always as clear as it should have been. Clouded with anger and frustration, it never came to a point where I was at peace with myself and world around me at the same time.

My early Someday evolve from the day I was born. It was about my childhood and dreams coming true as I wander through life looking for something that has my passion. Senseless dreams as a child were many. Day dreaming was a way of making it through class or that part time job after school. Not concerned about the practicality or the costs involved your dreams are just that, dreams. An unreal journey to say the least it was a way of coping at the time. It was here that I learned about procrastination and indecisiveness.

Then your Someday becomes a little bit of a force to drive your instincts to become a father or provider. Never meeting my calling as a responsible person in the beginning of my adolescent and young adult days it became a nightmare for me as I kept screwing good things up and focused on staying on the bad side of life. In this journey I lost precious things and more than that, I lost treasurable moments. I was losing my grip on my Someday and drifted into space and other darkness. Experiencing a mind altering event, I knew it would take decades to put be back on track. It was here where I learned about the darkness and the evilness in the world as I allowed it to enter mine.

Middle age brings me another opportunity to straighten the tracks of my tears and come out a little bit more focused on the priorities of life and those within it. Your Someday now becomes a global feeling and ambition that drives you to a specific goal and warmth inside. You are working hard to keep that feeling alive and although you may stumble more than once, how you get up measures the distance you will travel and survive. The sun begins to be noticed and the clouds appear to be lined with a little more silver than before as the storms subside and the light becomes brighter.it was here where I learned to be patient and allow the sunshine to enter when dark clouds were rumbling in the background and teasing my mind that there is more rain than sunshine in one’s life.

Today my Someday is almost here and I can see that although not a perfect life, I have redeemed myself slightly but not completely. There are still vital pieces of the puzzle missing and that will be up to God and my guardian angels to see if they will ever be found or connected to what I need to complete the journey. I can honestly say I did it the best I could and found my heart, my soul and my conscience along the way to keep it as straight as possible but it’s far from perfect.

Perhaps, another chance in another world or heaven will make my Someday come true and complete as I always dreamt it would be for I know I did my best and that is all I can do when you are mortal and subject or prone to making mistakes or errors in judgment that can be detrimental to life or love, regardless how you do it, you will fail one and satisfy the other. It’s just the way life is.  

Correctional Officers - Quiet Time

 Sitting here daydreaming is nothing new for it happens every time I am alone. Ever since the day of remembrance of my birth, it has been a traditional moment to sit down and reflect my life and work on making it better. Some call me crazy for taking the time out of the day to just sit there and impulsively reflect on the good, the bad and the ugly things in my life. Others completely understand my motive as well as my reasons for doing this for they do it as well.

Quiet time is an escape from the stress and hustle of my lifestyle. It is a time of calmness and understanding as I look back where I have been and what I have done. Quiet time is not always about me or myself or I. It is also about the special people in my life that created the dynamics and flow pattern that got me where I am today. I need to remember where I was and where I am. I need to know how I got there and why I went here to begin with and although impulsive reflective thinking does not bring any specific motive or reason to the surface, it does bring peace.

Transporting my memes from past to future is never forgotten. Some are clear as day it happened while others are murky or cloudy needing a push from a picture or a voice to bring it back. It occurs to me that I do this often and at any instant, one after another, photographs and memories pop into my head. Sometimes I get dizzy and lightheaded for the memory might not be as pleasant as I wanted it to be but just before my tears begin to drop down my cheeks, I remember the good things as well. Dwelling on the bad can only make you sad.

Memes last an eternity. How you manage them is very important for your future and your relationship with life itself. It is often said that one insignificant speck of dust or particle of the past plays a significant part of your life. The universe is so vast, one must believe that everything has a purpose under the stars of heaven. Leaps of thoughts create a light show inside my head. I can see the stars, the moons and the planets as they lead me into a spell of mesmerizing moments and contemplate me doing this for an eternity till my dying day here on Earth.

Never forgotten those days of past long gone and never forgetting that the future holds tomorrow. One day may seem like a thousand years but the fact is you can’t escape one moment or one nanosecond of your life without realizing your presence and your purpose that should never be forgotten. Quiet time comes during the day or even the night. It has no reason for appearing other than making you aware of your reality and what your life is or was all about. Quiet time is a significant time. It is a powerful moment to gather your thoughts and reveal who you are and what you stand for.

Tick tock tick tock, the clock hums out loud in the background but quiet time has no clock. It is what makes you transcend into a momentary stage that belongs only to you. It is where history becomes a reality and transfers you into many different places at a time. A psychological time machine that only you can relate to and understand. Quiet time empowers your health and wellness. It gives you the answers from above and unequivocally puts you in a powerful position that only you can recognize.

 

 

 

Corrections – A Zookeeper’s Dream

There appear to be many analogous paths between a zookeeper and a correctional officer. Many may be insulted for the comparison but how often have your referred to the workplace as a “zoo” rather than a prison?  Looking at the job description of either the correctional officers (COS) or the Zookeeper we need to break it down to see what the job entails. Holding all things even, we must take the time to examine closely what each position does in relationship to where they work.

First off, both jobs requires working better than 40 hours a week as well as working overtime, weekends and holidays. Similarly both work with predatory and non-predatory species and have to divide the lethal from the non-lethal species to maintain a delicate balance of nature and keep each other safe. Regardless, in the end they work will all types of animals as COS work with all types of criminal offenders.  Zookeepers look after animals in zoos and safari parks as do correctional officers look after prisoners in different custody level facilities and locations.

To become a zookeeper, you will need to have confidence and patience when working with animals. You’ll need good observation skills. You’ll also need good 'people' skills. The same applies for COS working with offenders convicted of non-violent crimes as well as the very violent crimes such as homicides, kidnapping, rape, and aggravated assault with a weapon and many other felonies of the worst degree. Recognizing bizarre or unusual behaviors requires good observation and vigilance of the areas assigned.  

You may not need any particular qualifications to start work in a zoo however, some employers may expect you to have at least a GED or high school diploma or similar qualifications. You will need a driving license for work in wildlife and safari parks as you do in corrections to drive an official vehicle for perimeter patrol or transport inmates. The work assigned has many similarities.  Your tasks as a zookeeper would include:

·         preparing food and feeding animals or ensure they are fed or provided meals by delivery or escort to dining halls

·         providing fresh bedding and water or ensure adequate personal hygiene supplies and showers and recreation for those housed in restricted areas

·         cleaning out pens and cages or ensure they are cleaned according to housing rules for sanitation levels and compliance with housekeeping rules related to personal property etc.

·         checking for signs of distress, disease or injury in animals or ensure same for prisoners and report any unusual observations to supervisor and medical staff as warranted by custody levels

·         helping to care for sick animals under the direction of a vet or ensure care is available to medical staff and provide the opportunity to seek medical care or appointments as scheduled

·         checking enclosures, cages and barriers for signs of wear or damage or inspect security devices

·         answering visitors’ questions and sometimes giving talks or lectures or ensure compliance with rules and regulations as well as state or federal statutes

·         monitoring accommodation conditions, such as temperature and humidity or ensure temperature is regulated inside housing areas

·         keeping daily activities and observation or healthcare records, normally on a computer

·         You would usually work with one type of animal or in a particular section of the zoo or supervise or manage different custody levels at different prison units within a complex

As animals need to be looked after seven days a week, you will usually work on a shift system including weekends and bank holidays. Senior zookeepers may be on a call-out rotational schedule or list. You could spend a lot of time outside in all weathers, depending on the type of animal just like you would spend time out on work details located at various places or highway crews, manufacturing plants or landscape crews. My point is that prisons are much like zoos but in reality not at all like a zoo as there are higher levels of expectations to be adhered to and the propensity to be injured is higher due to the nature of the workplace. It is likely the public has no idea what a correctional officer really does but when you compare it to a zookeeper it begins to make some sense.

The difference of course is the management of people rather than animals although both are capable or known to be predatory and violent in nature at one time or another when in danger or when committing crimes that requires high risks behaviors and threat to human lives and injuries.

Zookeepers would certainly face a more complex situation when faced with persons rather than animals as there are compliance levels that need to be enforced and specific demeanor not allowed at any time and requires re-structuring behaviors through either negative or positive reinforcement methods including the use of incentive programs and self-improvement programs that aid in reforming behaviors and eventual release back into society.

Change leader, change thyself

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” Leo Tolstoy

Using this idiom would be a great starting point for this article as it hits on the fact that a leader must change within themselves as an individual change before it can engage in on organizational change. Changing cultures or the way you do business takes self-understanding and then put the values into an organizational context.

Most of the time, we rarely see organizations change drastically but their people do. It is the right move to change performance strategies and inner structures to accomplish their revised goals with new policies and procedures.

Change takes time and in order to make successful change there must be sufficient time allotted for the process to work. One needs to assess when something fails, it must also address the mindsets and skill sets of those that executed the change. It is suggested that 50 percent of change fails because of senior staff failing to adjust their own behaviors to meet the organizational needs.

Many resort to a passive status quo that hampers or sabotages the attempts for change thus there must be change in people to make the change happen. It has been suggested that this will create a success rate four times more likely to succeed due to having the right people in the right places.

A common mistake, made even by companies that recognize the need for new learning, is to focus too much on developing skills. Training that only emphasizes new behavior rarely translates into profoundly different performance outside the sterile career developing seminars.

Individuals have their own inner lives, populated by their beliefs, priorities, aspirations, values, and fears. These interior elements vary from one person to the next, directing people to take different actions. This profile is a combination of his or her habits of thought, emotions, hopes, and behavior in various circumstances.

Profile awareness is therefore a recognition of these common tendencies or traits and the impact they have on others. Therefore, a careful selection of those that meet the criteria for change must be given a chance to become change leaders from the start of the project and endure the entire journey with consistency.

Organizational awareness involves the real-time perception of a wide range of inner experiences and their impact on your behavior. These include your current mind-set and beliefs, fears and hopes, desires and defenses, and impulses to take action.

This type of awareness is harder to master than profile awareness. While many senior executives recognize their tendency to exhibit negative behavior under pressure, they often don’t realize they’re exhibiting that behavior until well after they’ve started to do so. At that point, the damage is already done.

Therefore the message is to simply balance the change between people and the organizational awareness around them. Having the right people in the right places enhances success and instrumental in changing organizational cultures made up of mindsets, beliefs, fears and hopes as well as desires and naturally spent energies to take the right kind of action as the development of a new journey takes its course.