Wader Waiting
by Linda Green Pierce
Spring arrives this week and, typical for the Pacific Northwest, it is wet. Our winter and spring weather is rain -- and more rain. We seldom have to deal with much in the way of shoveling snow and scraping windshields, but things get pretty boggy at this time of the year.
In this state of weather, after 1/4" of rain falling in 24 hours, I'm slogging across my backyard with my tiny inside-dog, Lily. I'm wearing my Hunter waders and looking for signs of spring. There are crocus up and the daffodils have broken their green tops through the soil, but I'm still waiting.
Waiting is my waders. Waiting for spring, waiting for the economy to change, waiting for job hiring to return to the Pacific Northwest, waiting for my client law firms to tell me their work is increasing, waiting for budget approvals from corporate legal departments.
As a native Oregonian, I'm good at waders. Waders from Hunter, REI, LLBean, Orvis, and Columbia Sportswear's chest waders for fly fishing. Waders I get. But "Waiting" -- not so much.
I've asked lawyer candidates and clients what they are doing during this time of waiting (outside of career activities such as resume preparation and interviews) and I pass on some of their action suggestions:
Kids and family: Spending more time with them now and including them in planning activities for economical vacations to be taken next summer. "Staycations" that involve shorter trips around the home area are popular.
Medical: Shining up your teeth, getting that dreaded colonoscopy 'behind you', having an annual physical and eye exam. If they are fortunate enough to have continuing medical coverage, people are making sure they are getting all their med appointments in and done in the current medical coverage year.
Reconnecting: Getting together with the neighbors for a mid-week cooked-together dinner. Inviting a client or referral source to your home for a cooked-in dinner, rather than out at a pricey restaurant. Raiding your wine cellar and inviting that client, law partner or old friend over. (Wine sales in this recession have increased as people switch to entertaining at home, but they want to top their dinner off with a nice bottle of vino.)
Volunteering: Schools, nonprofits and community activities are benefiting from the extra time available to lawyers and, hopefully, those relationships will continue forward.
Organization: Reorganizing those office and home files, that closet, your Outlook, and winnowing out that "to read" pile. It's amazing what can get done in that extra 30 minutes to an hour you have now.
Learning: Getting ahead of the curve on CLEs, taking a class to really understand the software you're already using -- but also -- some have signed up for classes they've always wanted to explore such as languages and cooking.
Introspection: Everyone seems to have been in this state since late 2008 or early 2009 and are now breaking out of the introspective pondering and into action. Whether there has been a three-month process of contemplation in order to make an action decision or you've just finally come to the "it's just time to move on" place -- introspection appears to be over.
Giving: Now, when we all have less than we did, there is always someone who has little or none. Even those between jobs are giving a can of corn, a 6 pack of tuna or a case of mac and cheese to food drives.
Lily needs another trip outside and I need to put on my waders. As I pull them on, I think: I'm done with waiting, done with introspection and I'm on to action!
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