Making and finding time ...

Ok so I am unemployed at the moment so I have plenty of time. The thing is I have to search for work. Some days, I can be on my laptop for hours. I search through the main job sites, link to recruitment agencies, send my resume to whichever agency I can find connected to the kind of job I'd like and then spend at least 15 minutes applying for each job.

It takes time, at least 5-6 hours a day. And that is if I go to each agency, to go to each job site and carefully apply for each job.

I'm trying to make and the find the time, to the the things I cannot do when I am employed. I start with a morning walk, sit in the courtyard and drink freshly brewed coffee and take the time to shower and dressed before I start job hunting.

I'm also trying to mix things up. I watch the news everyday and also now watch Sky and BBC and read a few online news sites to stay updated. It also helps me keep focused on the fact that while I may not working, I am safe and have a roof over my head. I'm not starving or in the midst of a war or awaiting rescue because of the floods.

I'm reading a lot of books and trying to mix up the genres so I do not get stuck in any kind of rut right now. Ive just finished Naked and am starting on Garden Spells. These two books are as different as can get.

I've learnt that there is never a good time to fall apart.

People are losing their homes, their possessions, their livelihoods and their sense of selves because we are defined by our work. We do rely on our salaries and use them as a baseline to get a better car, TV, holiday home, to get our children into better schools.

When that all falls apart, thousands of people have to find themselves. Their own reason and meaning and have to cope with menial labour and having to cut down on all the luxuries, the little things that make having a job which we probably endure (not like or love) ... just to get our child into a better school, to keep renovating and building, to add a wing, to fix the swimming pool.

I am not sure how people who have lost everything cope. I suppose they just have to learn to. To cancel their credit cards, to buy clothes from second hand and charity shops, to stop eating out. To selling the material things they don't need. To find a job any job to tide them over or just having to learn to ride it out.

I'm luckier than most. I have only had this past job for less than two months. And each time, I learn about the roles I should be going for. Or now I am considering studying further hopefully at a place where I don't have to pay a huge amount.

I'm finding the time to make time to learn what I truly want and need and what I can go without. For now. I'm reading, keeping interested in the world and watching how others cope, how other people are riding this out. I'm gardening, cleaning the flat, reading books, watching movies and applying for work.

I'm trying to stay positive, trying to budget what money I do have and to spend very little each day. And appreciating that now I have the time to make the time and find the time to do things I enjoy until I find the right job (whenever that will be.)