an engineer at heart

so this is what happens with an engineer in my life -
he says something i never heard of,
and it catches my mind on fire.

like 'critical path.'

OOooOooohhhhh i say...what's THAT?!
and i start repeating 'critical path. critical path. critical path.'
cause i love how it sounds.

okay, so now you gotta forgive the non-engineer defining of this -
this is filtered thru me, so you know....take it with a grain of salt -
but this is what's got me all tickled, so who cares if it's accurate or not?
that's not the point!

so like you're doin' a project.
and you got a buncha different things you gotta do.
which thing is kinda pluggin' up the works at the moment?
the thing that needs unpluggin' so the rest can flow right then,
THAT's the critical path.

ahem.
i apologize to any engineers for that.
but that's what i got.

what's pluggin' up the darn works?
that's where we gotta focus.

oh man......you KNOW that caught my interest.

i found myself driving and thinking about that.
i wanted to find the critical paths in my life.

but you know....that means i gotta have something in mind that i'm
trying to accomplish, right? so you gotta kinda know your goal.
oh great, i groan.
i gotta know my goal in life?
but you do know, i argue.
you do.

and i do.

but i go to the one that i'm workin' on right now.
the sub-goal.
that's to stay present. to see how lucky i am.
to realize all the bounty and glory all around me.

okay.
so what gets in my way?
well.........hmmmmmm......it's the staying present stuff.
i slip and fall asleep over and over.

so my critical path right now is to keep myself awake?

not sure.
now i'm confused.
but i think that's prolly it.

and i don't know how to.
i mean, if i knew that, i could type that out and be some kinda
amazing guru, right? but i haven't a clue.

at this point i find myself in an aisle at target with a tiny little boy.
he's sitting in his cart making the most wonderful noises.
he's happy and he's cooing.
my back is to him as i'm checkin' out something real important
like hooks. and i hear him. and my whole being melts.

i turn towards him and smile and start talking to him.
hooks have taken the back seat to this little boy's glow.
not wanting to be some kinda weirdo shopper and freak out his mom,
i turn back to the hooks after i've filled up on the glow.

i grab what i need, and go to the next aisle.
i hear his cooing again.
i stand one aisle over just listening.

cooing.
totally in the present.
totally there.

i head off thinking that's it....i gotta unplug my cooing pipe.
i gotta unplug the gunk so i just coo.
that's my critical path.
but now i see there must be more to this engineering stuff....
cause you gotta figure out how.

i wonder what they call that? the figuring out of it all?
i imagine they use schematics. (see! i DO hang out with these
engineery types and pick up words!) but i think i need to use
visuals....

and won't that be fun?!
visuals to see what's gunking up the cooing pipe.
oh man, i am such an engineer at heart!