Day 3,788
Growth:
I’m re-reading Endurance and this quote still bends my brain in so many ways…
Alfred Lansing, Endurance
And so November was drawing to a close. They had been on the ice just a month. And for all the trials and discomforts, these weeks of primitive living had been peculiarly enriching. The men had been forced to develop a degree of self-reliance greater than they had ever imagined possible. After spending four hours sewing an elaborate patch on the seat of his only pair of trousers, Macklin wrote one day, “What an ingrate I have been for such jobs when done for me at home.” Greenstreet felt much the same way after he had devoted several days to scraping and curing a piece of sealskin to resole his boots. He paused in the midst of his task to write in his diary: “One of the finest days we have had… a pleasure to be alive.”
In some ways they had come to know themselves better in this lonely world of ice and emptiness, they had achieved at least a limited kind of contentment. They had been tested and found not wanting.
Appreciation:
We all have tasks that have to be done for work and life that we are not big fans of. These are the things that drain us of energy, typically aren’t strengths of ours, and are voted “Most Likely to Happen Last.”
This afternoon I bundled up about a dozen of those types of tasks, beared down, and hammered away until they were all completed. Not the most exciting hours of my day, not the most energizing moments, but much needed productive ones for sure. Here’s to knocking them out all at once.
Presence:
Getting our first run in since a vacation was invigorating this morning! Sooooo much warmer than the runs before we left, I appreciated not having to bundle up while taking in the fresh air!
Thanks!!!
Thankful for Forty 