As an Opportunist
Amidst this current madness and unexpected break from the consistent reliability of busyness, I would like to share my perspective and invite you to hang out with me for a minute.
When we are still, our Spirit can hear. When we are bored we have an opportunity to explore the creative. When the external falls away the internal is exposed.
We are too busy. Home life is something that happens the week between Christmas and New Year's and maybe on 2 lazy summer mornings, maybe a Saturday here and there. Our jobs own us. Societal expectations dictate 90% of our choices (more?). We're barely keeping up financially. Our hearts are hurting. Our inner life is stumbled over and swept aside and forgotten. There are calls and purpose and dreams being overlooked and cast aside even though we live in the days when we truly can accomplish anything we want. We trade dreams for paychecks and medicate the mourning wails of our souls with stuff and things and aesthetic lifestyles and functional alcoholism and busyness.
What if... what if we just stop?
“When you really look at it, time is all we’ve got...Time management is possibly the thing I’ve done best in my life in terms of generating the kind of life I wanted to live...I’ve always thought that the highest quality of living really comes from being the master of your own time….deciding where you want to go in the morning and what you want to do…that is so important.” Caterina Fake
What if we just don't. What if we stop bowing to societal expectations? What if we stop working on more money and things? Stopped striving and slaving and being so obedient and doing the things we're told we're supposed to do? The things we're told to want. The things the other people have and the things other people give their kids. The things of this world will fade. Your life will burn out like a match. Not a lamp. Not a candle. The flick of a match and then you're moving on, dude.
I'm not saying anarchy. I'm not saying reckless abandon of societal participation. I'm saying to own your thoughts during this lapse in the grind and dig deep into understanding exactly what you want out of life...and then take advantage of this space for rumination and let new dreams take root in your life.
"We're protecting our outer man while our inner man is dying"-Lauryn Hill
This is a great song to listen to after reading my post
I am not downplaying the challenges that are being imposed upon us. The uncertainty, especially in finances, that are popping up. I get it. Maybe I am ok because I have lived through severe poverty? Maybe I am ok because I don't even understand what I am supposed to feel afraid of? Maybe I just believe there is very little that matters in the physical realm and toilet paper kinda doesn't.
Never, ever, has an opportunity for stillness presented itself for such a length of time in the modern era.
This break in normal is the Great Opportunity.
Here are a handful of ideas and practices that I love and will be more aggressively embracing in the coming weeks:
Drop your phone. Read an inspiring book. An igniting book. A healing book. Say no to filler activities. Shut off screens. All of them. (at some point every day, let's be real)
Journal. List your goals. Give yourself space to think about the yucky things that you avoid, like your feelings and your fears and your insecurities and regrets. Sit with them. Process them. Deal with them.
Acknowledge your weaknesses! Own your strengths! List everything awesome about you! List your fears! omg.....Fear Setting....check this out!
Listen to beautiful music with words that speak to your heart. Have a dance party!
Envision yourself at 70, what qualities do you want to have? Are you sowing into those things now? What is beauty? What is wisdom?
What do you want in your life that feels impossible? Pray for those things. Sit with your dreams and let them steep into your heart and your vision and your existence. Read to your kids. Let them be bored. Let their minds be still. Sit. Just freaking sit and stare into the distance. Sit in the sun or watch the rain. Let your mind run until it stops. Then breathe. Get to that point of peace and then gird your loins and start looking at where you need to take charge in your life. Where do you need change? What are the steps to create that change? Acknowledge your ability to evoke change. Own your power. All it takes is a moment of intentionality to enrich your human experience and set your life on a fresh path.
When we are still, our Spirit can hear. When we are bored we have an opportunity to explore the creative. When the external falls away the internal is exposed.
We are too busy. Home life is something that happens the week between Christmas and New Year's and maybe on 2 lazy summer mornings, maybe a Saturday here and there. Our jobs own us. Societal expectations dictate 90% of our choices (more?). We're barely keeping up financially. Our hearts are hurting. Our inner life is stumbled over and swept aside and forgotten. There are calls and purpose and dreams being overlooked and cast aside even though we live in the days when we truly can accomplish anything we want. We trade dreams for paychecks and medicate the mourning wails of our souls with stuff and things and aesthetic lifestyles and functional alcoholism and busyness.
What if... what if we just stop?
“When you really look at it, time is all we’ve got...Time management is possibly the thing I’ve done best in my life in terms of generating the kind of life I wanted to live...I’ve always thought that the highest quality of living really comes from being the master of your own time….deciding where you want to go in the morning and what you want to do…that is so important.” Caterina Fake
What if we just don't. What if we stop bowing to societal expectations? What if we stop working on more money and things? Stopped striving and slaving and being so obedient and doing the things we're told we're supposed to do? The things we're told to want. The things the other people have and the things other people give their kids. The things of this world will fade. Your life will burn out like a match. Not a lamp. Not a candle. The flick of a match and then you're moving on, dude.
I'm not saying anarchy. I'm not saying reckless abandon of societal participation. I'm saying to own your thoughts during this lapse in the grind and dig deep into understanding exactly what you want out of life...and then take advantage of this space for rumination and let new dreams take root in your life.
"We're protecting our outer man while our inner man is dying"-Lauryn Hill
This is a great song to listen to after reading my post
I am not downplaying the challenges that are being imposed upon us. The uncertainty, especially in finances, that are popping up. I get it. Maybe I am ok because I have lived through severe poverty? Maybe I am ok because I don't even understand what I am supposed to feel afraid of? Maybe I just believe there is very little that matters in the physical realm and toilet paper kinda doesn't.
Never, ever, has an opportunity for stillness presented itself for such a length of time in the modern era.
This break in normal is the Great Opportunity.
My perspective is this:
We can move through this time with intention and make it powerful, moving, and impactful on our future.
Here are a handful of ideas and practices that I love and will be more aggressively embracing in the coming weeks:
Drop your phone. Read an inspiring book. An igniting book. A healing book. Say no to filler activities. Shut off screens. All of them. (at some point every day, let's be real)
Journal. List your goals. Give yourself space to think about the yucky things that you avoid, like your feelings and your fears and your insecurities and regrets. Sit with them. Process them. Deal with them.
Acknowledge your weaknesses! Own your strengths! List everything awesome about you! List your fears! omg.....Fear Setting....check this out!
Listen to beautiful music with words that speak to your heart. Have a dance party!
Envision yourself at 70, what qualities do you want to have? Are you sowing into those things now? What is beauty? What is wisdom?
What do you want in your life that feels impossible? Pray for those things. Sit with your dreams and let them steep into your heart and your vision and your existence. Read to your kids. Let them be bored. Let their minds be still. Sit. Just freaking sit and stare into the distance. Sit in the sun or watch the rain. Let your mind run until it stops. Then breathe. Get to that point of peace and then gird your loins and start looking at where you need to take charge in your life. Where do you need change? What are the steps to create that change? Acknowledge your ability to evoke change. Own your power. All it takes is a moment of intentionality to enrich your human experience and set your life on a fresh path.
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