Monday, August 10, 2015

i'm having a hard time prioritizing my life these days.

i have a demanding job [which i happen to like], relationships to invest in, places to volunteer, limited time to build my dream job on the side, and truthfully, it's easy to feel overwhelmed at times. not so much physically, as one good nap [followed by some sort of caffeine fix] tend to keep me going, but mentally and emotionally.

1) needs surround us, but we can't meet them all.

the lady i live with is lonely, some of my friends are going through tough times, and strangers, even though i have my headphones in, think i have an imaginary 'tell me your problems' sign on when i'm trying to recharge between meetings. people can be draining.

"in every encounter we either give life or we drain it; there is no neutral exchange" [brennan manning]

2) be a life-giver.

this isn't to say that you can't have a bad day, process things you're going through with a friend or two, or feel depressed when you have every reason to, but for the most part you [we] have the power to breathe life into others, and have them walk away from us feeling uplifted and loved.

2) get around life-givers.

surround yourself with people who encourage you, make you laugh, and add value to your life, but don't avoid the ones who don't, for the latter are the ones who help you build character ;)

3) take care of YOU.

on every airplane i've been on [minus the one i most recently jumped out of], the lovely flight attendant cautioned us to 'put our own oxygen mask on' before assisting others [with the exception of whoever was sitting beside me obvie].

all kidding aside, i think they're onto something; truth be told, you can't help others if you're not helping yourself, nor can you take care of others if you're not taking care of ... you.

Saturday, August 1, 2015

i may not be troy tulowitzki material [how about those blue jays?!], but i was a pretty darn good short stop if i do say so myself.

my ability to keep my eye on the ball was matchless, my arm, a canon, and honestly, the only time i made a defensive error was when i got ahead of myself and focused on throwing the ball to first before i even thought about getting the ball in my glove in the first place.

isn't that how we face life sometimes? by paying too much attention to the next step, the next task, the next day [whatever], instead of focussing on what is actually happening in our lives right at this very moment?

i thought about this a lot during my most recent skydiving [thankfully, not sky-die-ving] experience.

you see, while many focus on the actual jumping part, there's actually a lot more to the whole experience than that one significant step.

first, you have the road trip with new friends, and old, and experiencing all of the emotions that each of you are feeling bottled up in one car. some are excited, some, anxious, and some are feeling both, but regardless, you're in it together.

and you're in it together when a ghetto station wagon hits you and rips your bumper off less than a block away from the runway you set out to conquer, and sets you back an hour. [true story].

and then there's the prep stage; the 'you may die' DVD they make you watch, the pages and pages of paperwork you sign to acknowledge that you may not make it, meeting your instructor who convinces you you will, getting suited up, and doing mock jumps in makeshift airplane cabins.

following that comes the ride up - 20 minutes of bliss - followed by the most anticipated part of all: the jump. from there, you fall, and glide, and if you're lucky, land safely, excited that you didn't give people a reason to watch the video, but sad that you're no longer in the air.

the thing is, it would have been easy for any one of us to let the content of the video, or the anxious feelings we were feeling because of it, prevent us from embracing this experience as a whole, and truthfully, some did [and some do}, but what good is that? what good would the plane ride have been had i had been focussing on my way down the whole time? and what good is today if all we're doing is focussing on tomorrow?