A neighbor gave us tons of tomatoes; I decided to make salsa, which I have never done before.
I didn't want to go to the trouble of canning it, so I froze a bunch of it …
… which I have never heard of anyone doing.
Will it work?
I don't know.
It might taste terrible. (Or it might be awesome).
But, if you don't ever try something new and unknown how do you grow?
It's not an event, its a process.
This came from a podcast I was listening to regarding becoming a published author … they were talking about how you really don't get to that place where "you've arrived" by an event, i.e. getting your book published (or even finished!), but rather, there were lots of steps along the way; it is a process.
I was reflecting on this and thought about how much of life is truly the same. When I was in college – a naive 18 or 19-year-old, I remember having a lively discussion with God (really, I was yelling at Him) about how this hard thing was SO DIFFICULT (it was probably something like an o-chem test) and When was I ever going to get a break? I remember that He kind of chuckled and asked me what I thought adult life was?
It was in that moment that I realized that real life, adult life, is a series of challenges that you overcome. Like an assembly line, they come one after another – but in the process, you become (hopefully) strong, compassionate, empathetic, creative; and the pie'ce de re'sistance ... wise.
It's like this with everything.
You don't become a mother just because you have a baby. You grow into it.
Fathers earn the right to speak into their children's lives.
Proficiency in a job comes not just through time, but evaluation, feedback, mistakes, failures.
When you say, "I do" you don't become "one" – that takes three or four decades of listening, struggling, playing, crying, working at it.
Embrace the process, because fighting it causes you to forfeit the benefits (and its exhausting).
I have returned from my trip (which was awesome) and have resumed writing!
And back to a horrifying 144 emails. For much of my trip, I was either in an internet vacuum, or I was on an e-mail fast, so they stacked up pretty quickly (although, I did connect mid-way and deleted as many non-important messages as possible, which is why this large number feels so overwhelming).
When I finally had time to sit down and look at all the little messages crying for my attention, I felt somewhat panicked. I don't randomly subscribe to stuff – if its coming into my in box, it is because I WANT it to … which means that each post had value and therefore, requires TIME.
Part of the problem is that I have 4 people who regularly post on different, but related subjects. I was trying to go through the e mails sequentially, from oldest to newest, and it just wasn't working for me, I think because I was switching topics between these four authors. It felt like a kid during a birthday party where he gets 20 gifts and is pressured to open them all, one right after another. There's no time to actually absorb the information or even appreciate it.
What I decided to do (that immediately made me feel better) was to create a couple of folders to hold these ideas and to schedule three different time periods to give them each individual attention. So right now, I am scanning each message to see if it is relevant to where I am currently (or will be in the near future) and I am either tossing them, or filing them, with the caveat that I will go through them within the next week and give them the attention they deserve.
The issue / realization on my end is that I cannot THINK when there is too much – in my house, in my in box, in my mind. To do well and move forward, I simply MUST declutter somehow.
My guess is that you are not all that different. What is one thing in your life that you can streamline today, with minimal effort? Do it. I guarantee you will feel lighter and more motivated to live well.
Last week, from two entirely different sources came the same message.
Seth Godin, whom I refer to often, mentioned two different lists – one of all the things in your life that have gone wrong. All the deals missed. All the disappointments. Then the other list: all the things that have gone right. All the lucky breaks. All the good times. He challenged his readers to focus on the "gone right" list. Because it IS a choice, and life is so, so much better when we focus our energy in that direction.
On that same day, Richard Rohr also referred to the choice of gratefulness. His angle was different, but his point was the same. When we focus on what we are grateful for, we experience God.
I noticed today, as I was driving, I looked to the side at something of interest, and immediately, my car leaned that way (I'm not all that great of a driver!) And when I used to take riding lessons, the instructors would always say, "Look where you want to go, not where you are." Because where you looked focused your energy and your center of gravity, and the horse naturally went there.
Look upward and outward. Inward at times, but always, with humility and thankfulness.
PS. I will be traveling for the next week, in and out of internet service … so I am not taking my computer and will not post until I get back.
I just saw a trailer for "We the economy" – 20 short films by big name folks designed to help us understand the more complicated aspects of our fiscal universe.
I promptly went to their website (wetheeconomy.com) … sigh. They are available to the public on Oct 21. Why advertise for something prior to it's release? This is not a theater showing … it's available via the internet – so why tell me about it, but not let me have it? This seems like a poor marketing move because a) it is annoying and b) by the time it is released, I may have moved on.
In a cyber world that doesn't necessarily afford return visits due to overloaded info-splurge (a word is just now made up), it seems like the best move would be to make it available and THEN tell me about it.
Sometimes, we get the order of things mixed up.
Like buying something before you have the money for it.
Like giving someone too much of yourself before you have a commitment.
Like saying you'll do something before consulting your calendar or your internal energy reserves.
Sometimes it doesn't matter, but sometimes, it DOES.