day 2353: Overnight Breaking News

“Don’t sin by letting anger control you.Think about it overnight and remain silent.”

A couple of weeks ago the Bay Area was put under a Tsunami Alert.  A big earthquake off the coast of Alaska triggered the alarms and the Northern California coast and anyone living within 5 blocks of the Bay were to be ready to evacuate.  The problem with this alert was that it came at 3:50AM and no one I know knew of it until they woke up.  There was no tsunami, but what if there had been?  We never know what we are going to face in the mornings when we turn back on the phone or log back in.  There was a time, and I can still vaguely remember it, when we went to bed to sleep that there was no company news or messages to respond to until we got all the way back into the office and would check our inboxes (our literal wooden, metal or plastic inboxes) and written phone messages that our Assistants might have taken after we left the office.  When I reflect on those days, I wonder if we actually had better thinking then than today?  I know I would think more on those things that were important, being able to not be distracted by the urgent or the immediate.  I don’t long for those days, but I do wonder if we shouldn’t somehow explore how to allow people to have more times of freedom of thought, versus going to bed worrying about what will be breaking overnight that they should get up and check on. Some of our best thinking time can be as our mind is at rest.

Part of our being always on and always available is that we can’t always control our emotions as well as we should, and if like me, the last things I read or talk about before I sleep can set the tone for the night’s rest or restlessness. So, I’ve found it’s a really good idea for me to not scroll Twitter before I go to bed.  🙂 We all have our trigger buttons and it might be the contentious email late at night that sets us off.  You know, King David had a lot of enemies and lots of reasons to get angry and need to think about what to do with those who angered him.  But, in the midst of it all, he left us with the advice that using the night to think and allow our emotions to calm is a really good thing.  What a simple, but profound, life lesson for each of us to contemplate and consider adding into our life axiom.  And, imagine how much better we can be for those around us if we were to follow the advice consistently?

Reference: Psalm 4:4 (New Living Translation)