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I’ve been working three short night shifts a week… at ASDA.

They rank amongst the longest eighteen hours of my week, perhaps my life.

Not that I am complaining, it’s just that I’m not very efficient!

My name, around the ASDA Round Table of the Knight-Shift is Sir Lagalot. I watch enviously as fellow Knights flow around me with grace and elegance, plucking products perfectly from their preferred positions punctually.

Today, the head of the Legion and I had ‘the chat’.

He looked me straight in the eye and told me the truth. Yes, it’s Official, I am one of the slowest pickers in the pack… the naffest night-picking ninja in the West.

I think there is something fishy about this. In fact, Einstein is reputed to have said, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”  Frankly, I feel stupid… even as I sit here gracefully, elegantly, plucking proverbs profoundly from their preferred positions punctually as I touch type.  Yes, our gifts, each one's genius differs.  I’ve never – no never – done a ‘proper job’ – not a proper physical one - unless being a postman counts as physical labour (and I loved that!)

Being Sir Lagalot, what I lack in speed and efficiency, I make up for in observation. Flying around me like bees on a mission to serve their queen, are all the other workers. Most put their heart (if not their soul) into it, and this got me thinking of another proverb: “… where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Could that work in reverse? Where your heart is, there your treasure will be also. Could I find treasure by putting my heart into it?

If I may take poetic licence with this proverb, I would suggest that when we put our heart (and back into something) we find treasure and even create value.  My nights are long because I dislike it so much, but I know for others, the hours fly by because they are so ‘into’ it. I’m going to try harder as an experiment in time-distortion and see if my last nights go faster, but that’s not my focus for this message.

My message is a question: “What do you put your heart into?” It may be something that requires your heart and back, or even your heart and soul!  But it will be something that yields treasure for you, and something you treasure. Please share what you put your heart into to the point that the hours fly by unnoticed.

Is Alchemy possible? Can I take the lead feeling of a job I hate and transmute it into the gold of something I treasure? I hope to discover that, whether a task is suited to one’s persona or not, putting one’s heart into it creates treasure.  I’ll let you know.

In conclusion… Are you a fish or a bird; a reptile or a mammal?! If you are a bird, reptile, or mammal – climb trees!  But if, like me, you’re a fish, stick to swimming deep.

This fish better swim upstream before he gets issued with that uniform!

Lex

A Moodscope member.