Dissolve

A dissolve is a type of scene transition used in movie editing to gradually shift the viewer's attention from one scene to another. This can be so gradual that the viewer doesn't really notice that they are having their attention shifted from one thing to another.

That effect is something that I have noticed as I go to and from these overseas projects. The photo above is the sunrise out the window of the plane as we arrived in Hong Kong this morning. Yep, I'm heading for another overseas project (not there yet, about 5 hours until I arrive in Thailand).
Before I even left I was getting homesick. I just recently got to see my son in his school play, he had the lead role. That is him in the blue shirt.

I saw my wife off to our lake house just before I left, and I dropped the kids and our dog off at my inlaws house just a few hours before heading to the airport.


As I sat there in the empty house all I could think about was how much I was going to miss my family, especially since this is spring break for our kids. I was thinking how much I enjoy the comfort of my home and my family. I was absorbed with all the home and family-related activities of my life. I didn't want to leave.

Now, as I sit in the Hong Kong airport, my attention is being shifted to the project in Thailand. I am already emailing my client and getting myself ready for the meeting we will have just after I step off the plane (after over 30 hours of travel). Soon I will be completely absorbed in all the issues at hand with this project. I will still miss my family and want to be there-but my attention will be focused here, rather than there. All the issues, deadlines, personal preferences related to this project will have my undivided attention. All these things will become the most important things in my life-or so it seems.

Once I board the plane to go home, all the crises and "world-changing" issues of the project here will quickly dissolve and become almost completely unimportant to me. I will then be refocused on home and family. The terribly critical project-related issues will just dissolve away as I get closer to home.

If my attention can dissolve so quickly, just simply based on where I happen to be sitting (or standing), then maybe these projects and their issues that cause me so much worry and stress should not be given such a high level of importance. What I mean is, although I give them their proper level of attention, I need to keep my whole world in perspective, rather than let my whole world shrink down to the size of the few square miles that I occupy while I complete a project. You see, there have been times when the pressure of a project gone awry have made me want to run and jump overboard, really. It was either that or break down and cry in front of a bunch of oilfield executives and workers. I'll take my chances jumping overboard given those two choices. I didn't actually do either, I pressed in and solved the problems-but, my perspective was wrong. At that time, these problems at hand meant EVERYTHING to me. They were the issues central to my entire world. That is not good. That is not good because I nearly bust a blood vessel from the stress. That would not be good.

Right now I am at the threshold of potential project-related problems that could send me into a stress frenzy-again. I am praying that the knowledge of the upcoming dissolve reminds me that this is just a short scene and in the end, everything is really going to be okay. My job is just to glorify God in my response to the problems that arise, and keep His perspective in mind. We'll see how that goes.