Life has become increasingly busy and ridiculous, almost all in positive ways. Quite honestly, even the small number of speed bumps have been wonderful opportunities to grow and develop. In many cool ways it almost feels as if the universe is conspiring to bring my joy!
What I’m finding very interesting is the number of opportunities that are popping up seemingly out of the blue. All around me are more events to go to, more ideas to work on, and past ideas and potential projects that seem to be making sense again. All around me are more and more opportunities and I am thankful for that.
In past years I would run with pretty much all of them and some would fall quickly by the wayside as new options came available. For sure, it wouldn’t be that those left behind were bad, it would purely be that my attention drew me to the new and shiny instead.
This year has been very different and largely due to one single exercise. I took the advice of Jim Collins and spent time considering the theme I would choose to live for 2021. I’ve written about it before: Into the woods. My core focus has been on living life intentionally. I narrowed it down to my three biggest goals, three things to start doing, three things to stop doing, and three things to remember. Couple those groups of three with my values and it has laid out a very clear way for me to live in 2021.
Thanks specifically to that time spent planning, while it was quiet, I’ve found that I’m putting more focus into the things I decided we’re most important at the beginning of the year. I’ve been living significantly more intentionally than in the past and I’m starting to see it pay out in spades. W
This process is something I will definitely keep focused on for next year. The time spent on it for 2021 has already proven to be a extraordinary investment in myself.
One of the best parts of this weekend so far has been this oasis. I’ve written before about the crazy time warp effect I’ve been feeling from COVID. The more I get back to the normal routine the more it seems as if the past 15 months have been lived in a parallel dimension. My brain struggles to comprehend how the past year and half has happened while also seeming as if it didn’t happen and we’re jumping right back into the summer of 2020 as I’d first imagined it would be in the beginning of the year.
This weekend has been a wildly wonderful oasis. Spending time with friends, spending time outdoors, playing, relaxing, and chilling. Just like we would have had in 2020 without COVID, just like we would have done this year, just our group of lifelong friends, hanging out and enjoying each others company. No stress, no responsibility. Only time spent hanging out and strengthening friendships which seem as if they had already been stronger than possible.
Here’s to friendships, time warps, and an oasis of serenity.
It’s been well over a year and a half since we’ve had the opportunity to get the whole group of us together. Talk about an awesome reunion!
In another wonderful sign that we’re on the other side of the pandemic we’re getting together to spend time getting back into the old norm. Same jokes, same games, same everything. The normalcy has been amazing!
Speaking of which, I’m going to cut this one short and get back to the fun 😁👍
Quick disclaimer, awesome day all around and for so many reasons. Like, one of those days when there are so many reasons to blog that would have been headliners on any other day.
Here’s the deal. When one of my dreams gets closer to a reality I’ve got to be thankful for making progress. Today Becky and I got the most important ingredients for a dream on each of our lists…
Tickets to see Bruce Springsteen live on Broadway!!!
How awesome is that??? We are so pumped up and excited!!!! Woo hoo!!!
LOL – I think I’m starting to see a pattern developing! I’m a slow learner so we’ll see if I’m actually learning or if I continue to go through growing pains through the end of this week and the next.
In al seriousness, I am thankful for a wonderful reminder of why I usually schedule some slack time in my week. What is slack time? It’s the time I block off on my calendar specifically to keep open to handle other tasks as they come up. One of my mentors, Norm, helped me see that without setting time aside in my calendar I would never be able to get everything completed as planned. By keeping time blocked off intentionally I’m able to use that space to finish up all of the stuff that is scheduled in the rest of the week which never goes as quickly as I think it will.
With our backpacking trip coming up I’ve been focused on knocking out as much as possible so I’ve loaded up my calendar this week. Today was a perfect example of this as I started off by leaving the house by 5:30am to head up to Eau Claire for a day that saw pretty much every minute accounted for. By the time I got home after 5:30 my head was spinning and I was feeling a bit salty. By about 7:30 I finally got everything done that I wanted and sat down to relax.
Becky pointed out, in a very nice way, how negative and ornery I was. I am grateful for the way she can tell me that which is respectful and well intended. She then cruises right into helper mode to see how she can take some of the weight off my shoulders. I am beyond blessed to have her in my life!
Once I had an outside opinion to help ground me and give a voice to the frustration I was hearing in my brain basket it was easy to take a deep breath, relax my shoulders, settle my thoughts, and find both the cause of and solution to the frustration. The simple solution? Give myself more slack time so I can actually finish what is important.
Days like to today are amongst my favorite. There are several different paths I could take with my blog, but one hits at the last minute that is so perfect it feels like it must have been made up. The day was loaded with positive time with people I enjoy spending time with as well as much quiet time spent in thought. Much of my drive was spent in silence as I planned my day and had excellent insights on a project I’m working on. Becky got home and it was great hearing about her trip. I got some time with each of the boys. It’s been a fantastic day.
What seems correct to write about tonight was a moment while ordering jello squares for Gavin at the deli counter at Festival Foods. Yup, how trippy use that?
When I ordered the workers laughed and the one who was helping me explained that the person next to me, a fifty something dude, both ordered the same thing at almost the same time. They proceeded to race each other while the other dude and I laughed and each cheered for our person. The worker helping him out pointed out that he had ordered a larger container. I followed up with, “he obviously loves his family more than I do,” with a wink. He laughed and explained it was for his wife, she loves her jello. We exchanged a couple of other comments and went on her way.
As luck would have it I ended up right behind him at the check out line. He said “happy wife, happy life,” and I nodded in agreement with a huge grin. The next phrase was what really added to the magic of the moment.
“That’s what my dad always told me,” he said. For the briefest of seconds their was a look of profound sadness on his face which was followed so quickly with a smile again. “Boy do I miss him. What I would do for five more minutes with him.”
I almost lost it right there. That was exactly what Dad used to tell Nick and I about our grandpa. It is the same thing I tell my boys. In an instant I understood the smile, sadness, and smile. I am positive my face gives away similar emotions when I make the same statement. Smiling because of remembering Dad. Brief sadness because he is gone. A bigger smile because I know how blessed I was to have him in my life for as long as I did.
The dude and I spend another minute talking about our dads, their advice, and how they’d chuckle at our conversation. There is no question he felt his father there with him in much the same way I know Dad was there with me. It was a moment of pure magic.
Tonight I continued working on my book and I kept thinking back to those moments at the deli counter and then the cash register. They were pure gold. From them I drew inspiration for my writing and was reminded of the ways in which Dad brightened the lives of those he touched. I’m so proud and honored to live into his legacy in moments like those.
This morning I jumped right into work mode. I had a lot to accomplish and I was in the mood to get cracking right away. My mind was running in hyper speed as I knocked out task after task. Needless to say I was in the zone and hyper focused on the task at hand.
My day was pretty tightly scripted as I was both working form home in the morning and then taking the boys to Winona after Dominic’s track practice so they could spend the afternoon picking weeds for our Winona office. Everything was lined up to run almost perfectly.
Dominic biked to practice while I was on a call. Gavin got everything ready for their landscaping work while I was on a Zoom meeting. At 11:50am we hit the road to cruise to pick up Dominic from practice to make the run up to Winona – right on time.
When I pulled up Dominic walked up and looked a little confused. I asked him what was up.
“Umm… what are we going to do with my bike?”
Dominic then pointed out that practice was done about 15 minutes early and he would have had time to bike home and we could have been on the road on time.
In a heartbeat I realized that I had been hustling and so hyper focused that I hadn’t taken a step back to make sure that everything fit as intended.
Talk about a slap upside the head! In my rush I’d completely missed the details that would have made all the difference. Instead my day was knocked off kilter. My rush to be on time caused me to be the exact opposite.
Everything ended up working out okay, but there was definitely more stress than there needed to be.
All I had to do was pause, take a deep breath, take the long view, and I would have found that the day would’ve worked out even better than I’d planned.
Pain in the butt and mildly frustrating, but a great lesson nonetheless.
Soccer season for the boys often means driving all over the place for games. Quite often we’re making runs to the Madison area along with trips to Des Moines and South Dakota. This means a lot of weekend miles, but it’s well worth it to watch the boys play.
This weekend everything seemed to work out way better than it had any right to. As luck would have it the game was only a short fifteen minute drive from my little brother’s house. How perfect is that? Not only was it that close, but it was on a day when he and his family didn’t already have plans for the day!
Gavin and I took off early this morning, got to hangout with Nick, Jennifer, Sela, Lauren, and Cooper for a few hours before the game. As I type they’re en route to the field to watch the game with me. We’ll get another hour and a half together while enjoying the sun and a soccer match.
I am so grateful for these moments when everything just seems to work out right. I know the busy-ness of having kids will only last another short handful of years and I want to enjoy every moment of that time while spending time with everyone else I know and love. When things work out to able to do both all I can do is smile and be grateful.
LOL – be careful what I wish for, right? I’ve got a hunch I may come back to the title of this post one day and cringe if I’m in a fit of writers block!
I’ve got another call with my writing coach and editor in a couple of weeks and I have some homework to wrap up over the next week and a half… in addition to a full work schedule, a packed calendar of stuff with the boys, and more than I ever should have planned at one time. Nobody will ever accuse me of not taking enough on at one time, will they?
In preparation for that call I’ve got a handful of slightly different and yet very connected tasks to focus on. First, I’ve got a bit more to write as they both noticed there was a key piece to bring out to really add more depth and completeness to my work. With how much I’ve already written and all the blogs I’ve already created I’ll also need to cruise back through what I’ve already put together. Second, there are some themes to clean up a bit to then be used to find more common ground to work with – if my book had a subtitle what would it be? On the surface that seems so simple, but when I dive in I’m struggling to find the correct way to sun it up. Last, there are pictures I need to find and pull together for both the cover and content. All in all, I’ve got some work ahead of me today.
What I’m really finding today is how grateful I am for the entire writing process. There’s an added depth of experiencing life in putting pen to paper in this fashion. When one of my favorite podcasters wrote about taking a “voyage inward,” I didn’t initially realize just how correct he really is. The process of writing is mind blowing!
To start writing I must first pause and quiet my mind. I have to find solitude and serenity. This first step is such a powerful start as too often I don’t make the space my soul needs to breathe and process as I need to be full.
I start with an idea, thought, memory, or emotion and then start hitting down the experiences I’ve had which play into this point. In a short period of time I quickly sketch an outline of where I think I’m about to go. This is never perfect and is kind of a messy scribble, but it starts laying out my thoughts so I can see them as a whole.
With an outline laid out I close my eyes and breathe. Open my eyes, look out the window with a thousand yard stare. In my head memories and thoughts begin to scroll like a movie. Within seconds there are a flood of awesome moments flashing through my brain, each bringing on a huge smile. It doesn’t take long before I’ve got the outline fleshed out with several seeds of future paragraphs.
What’s particularly great about these memories is that they aren’t always moments; they’re also lessons, mistakes, missed opportunities, moments of joy, and moments of pain. Through the lens of time I’ve become grateful for each of them. There are no good or bad, they just are. It is up to me to lend a depth of feeling – I choose positivity, gratitude, and growth. I’ve learned from these moments and they’ve brought me to this exact moment in time. All those moments make me smile.
Once I’ve got the moments written down I can then move into introspection and reflection. That’s when I can add context to each of them. In this stage I learn and grow. I am able to process, dissect, learn, and parse all those moments and thoughts. My brain has the space created for it to put all of it into one unified whole.
Then it’s nothing but typing. All of the words seems to flow so much more cleanly after taking time.
The writing process itself is so beautiful. I have to create space for thought. I remember so many moments and lock them deeper into the creases of my brain. I learn from them all and find more / new / better ways to live more completely into the me I am called to be. When it is all done I’ve got an almost everlasting document to help me remember in the future. Awesomeness.
With a busy weekend of soccer and writing in front of me this week and a weekend full of time with friends next week I’m quickly running out of time to prep for our backpacking trip. It may sound crazy, but as I’ve been focused on gathering gear I’m finding I’m still well over what I was hoping to have for weight and volume.
To be honest, there’s a little bit of stress and a knot in my stomach as I attempt to figure out exactly what I’ll need and cut what I won’t. There’s a fine line between carrying too much, just enough, and not enough. Too far to either end of the spectrum and the results could really suck.
What I’m grateful for today is how far in advance I have started working on solving this puzzle. It would have been very easy to put it off until the very end but I know I would have made poor choices. By planning ahead I’m able to take my time and think through all my options. I’ve got more time to ask to advice, research the details, and the benefit of being able to try many different things to find what works best. Will it be perfect? Of course not! But I know it will be better than if I didn’t start planning far in advance.
Taking time to start laying it all out before I need to lay it all out has already helped me save myself from making a few mistakes. Over the next two weeks I’m sure there will be a few more tweaks and changes that will help me dial it in as closely as possible, enough to ensure a joyful trip.
Thankful for Forty 