Unexpected Benefits

A while ago I was complaining to my mother about some of the noises (snot snorting) coming from co-workers in the cubes next to me. I said that what I needed was a air filter to hopefully reduce allergies and a white noise machine to drown out the sounds. My mother is one of those people who has trouble throwing things out. But in this case, it worked to my advantage because she went down into her treasure trove of a storage room in the basement and came back up with a white noise machine and a little miniature ionic breeze air cleaner that she got for free when she bought her big one. Thank YOU Mom!

I took both of those things to work. I dont know if the ionic breeze thing helps but I quickly found that the white noise maker did actually make things much more bearable. It certainly stopped me from bothering my co-workers.

One of the sounds is the sound of ocean waves and that is my favorite sound. The ionic breeze thing makes the air smell very fresh and kind of reminds me a little of the smell of the Great Lakes.

It especially reminds me of a hiking trip I took to N Manitou island. One day I walked all the way from our campsite on one side of the island all the way to our next campsite on the other side. It was a rather hot day and the walk was dusty and long. Near the end of the hike, I was exhausted but had no choice but to continue since I was alone and was meeting my companion at the site since he had wanted to take a different trail. I walked along with sweat dripping into my eyes and my water supply nearly gone. I walked up a hill and as I neared the top, a breeze kicked up and I smelled the most wonderful smell: Lake Michigan. It was the sweetest smell. On it's own it would have been heavenly but since it also meant the end of a difficult journey it was all the sweeter. As I continued on the path for not much longer, I could hear the waves crashing on the shore.

So now, every day. Every single day when I go to work, I get to have that sound and that smell and that memory. It makes me so much less stressed out and maybe even helps me work harder. It makes going to work a lot easier and that is certainly something.