It's still Thursday...and my HNT is UP!!

I originally began picturing this shot in my mind yesterday after the particularly challenging day I had at work. It wasn't necessarily a "bad" day at work but with that said, it was a challenge. Today, the challenge got bigger and kept me there longer. Overall it was a week where you feel the weight ON your shoulders and at the end of the day IN your shoulders. So I give to you...my shoulders.

I personally think the human back is beautiful. By looking at a person's back, their stance, their pose, you can look into their day, their week, or their lives. So what's my story?

I changed the color on the picture to hide the real story. In the originally colored version you can see the redness through my traps due to me kneading them with my fingers as I was sitting on the couch a few minutes before heading upstairs to call it a night. The definition of the picture in my shoulder blades tells you my upper body carries a lot of responsibility...literally and figuratively.

My job requires me to depend on my shoulders and back literally every day. An injury would put me at a desk job. That you can condition yourself for. The hours at the gym, the weights, the massages. All of those things define the muscles, train them to fire, condition them to perform. It's the things muddling around in my head that cause the true strain on this back. The responsibility I carry on these shoulders is two fold...that expected by others, and that expected by me.

The responsibility put on one's shoulders by others is a compliment. It means they have sized you up and found you to be capable of the task. They trust you.

The responsibility you place on your own shoulders can be a crimpling. That's what I'm working on right now. There is a significant load laid upon these shoulders. it is always around this time of year that I begin to think about that. Are the things I'm carrying around really all that important? Do I need to lighten my load, reprioritize? What should stay on these shoulders, and who put it there? The respectful coworker with the "oh you can handle it" attitude or me, the better do it myself because at least I know it's done right attitude?

What if I was given a cross to bear? Could these shoulders handle it? I'm not sure they could.