Small cage with canary bird used in testing for carbon monoxide gas. Hollinger Mine, Timmons, Ontario, Canada. Mine Fire 02/10/1928 US Mining Safety and Health Administratio
For those happy campers who may not have an historical knowledge of mining, here is just a bit of background. Early on, caged canaries were taken down into the coal mines as air quality monitors. If the birds died, the miners knew that they had to get out immediately, as their air supply had been compromised.
My doctor used this phrase on me some time ago, when I was experiencing an unusual series of health issues. My health practitioner is great, as he doesn’t just look at and treat the symptoms, but works at getting to the underlying causes and eliminating those. Might I add a note here that this is such a refreshing concept in medical care!
After several visits over just a few weeks, my doctor looked me in the eye and said, “Have you considered, Kim, that all of these issues are related, and that they are your canary in a coal mine?” After a significant pause where he fixed my gaze with his, he continued. “Have you considered that there is something in your life causing substantial stress, and that it is manifesting itself in these symptoms?” Another pregnant pause filled the moment here, while I considered making a run for it in my open-backed johny and bare feet, but much to my imagined relief of the office staff and general public, I did not.
My doctor did not press me for answers, but he had opened a door I had been trying in vain to keep shut. You see, I had a job in a field I loved. Yet, I had reached a point where I was struggling daily with giving my notice. I didn’t want to leave my position, but after my most recent appointment, I forced myself to take a long, hard look at what was going on. What I discovered-what I knew, really, in my heart, but had not wanted to see-was that while this job fulfilled a dream of mine, it took away other very important aspects of my life: spending time with family and friends, and volunteering for my church, and it was costing me financially to continue. I found myself on the horns of a dilemma, and was being tossed around hard by it.
Laura Schlessinger writes about dilemmas in her book, How Could You Do That?!: The Abdication of Character, Courage, and Conscience
Ouch. There it was, the epicenter of my stress: my desire to be in this field, at this job, bulldozing over those things I held most near and dear.
At that point, my situation was revealed in stark clarity, and I sadly realized I had to make a choice. Soon thereafter, I tearfully gave my notice, and yet, was surprised and encouraged when I felt a huge weight lifting from my shoulders as I headed home that night.
The various symptoms that had been plaguing me are gone, and, today and every day, I work towards maintaining an appropriate balance in my life. Some days I do better than others, and some days it takes something outside of myself to point out that the canary has flown the coop.
How is your canary? Is she singing a full-throated song of joy, or has her music been silenced by unresolved dilemmas in your life?
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