Monthly Archives: December 2011

Why do we not try new things, blaze new trails, do something out of the “norm”?  Is it because we’re afraid?  Could it be that we’ve been told that it’s wrong or impossible?  Perhaps we were told that to stand out in any way was too weird, because, after all, “we’ve never done things that way before.”  But that’s the whole point! Shake up what’s ‘normal’! 

Tell a person that they’re worthless long enough and they’ll begin to believe that they are worthless.  Why do we do that to others?  So we can ‘feel’ superior to them?  Maybe it’s because we’re jealous of their creativity and wish to silence it if we can’t be creative on our own.  How shallow we are!

Think for a moment, why do we build houses on the water?  Is it because we’re afraid of the land?  No! There’s land under the water.  We build houses on water because we seek to be different!  We seek to express our weirdness and oddities in unique ways!  Because being “normal” didn’t suit us.  WHO gets to decide what’s ‘normal’ anyway?

Take careful inventory of your own life!  See that you have value and worth and creativity to offer this world.  You truly are worthwhile!  Just because you’re different from others, just because you think differently, have a different perspective or opinion, does not make you of any less value!  It simply means you’re weird!  So live your life out loud and BE WEIRD!!!

Ever notice that as we cruise along the road of life, we occasionally find potholes, speed bumps, detours and, sometimes even missing sections presumably under repair?  Consider this, why do we focus so hard on our destination and getting there as fast as possible? Our focus is working for that next promotion, to stand out at work, to have more degrees hanging on the wall, to have more money in the bank, to have the newest car, the latest gadgets, more, more, more, more.

The journey would be a LOT more enjoyable if we were able to slow down a bit and look at the scenery around us.  Some of the most interesting adventures have been side-trips, detours, and excursions.

If we try to plan out every part of our trip, we will stress out, flip out, and miss out on far too much.  What’s the hurry to get there?  Take time to BE weird!  Take time to enjoy your insanity! Far too many people try to achieve so much before they die that they go through life without living.  It’s almost as if they’re afraid to deviate from their plan; they’re afraid of surprises; they’re afraid to live. 

Yes, it is good to have a plan.  Yes, it is good to have goals.  No, achievement is not a bad thing.  But when our plan is so inflexible and we are so focused on achieving our goals, how is that living?  That is merely an existence…and a sad one at that.

One of my favorite lines of poetry is from John Greenleaf Whittier:

“Of all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are: ‘It might have been.’”

Think about that for a moment. When you reach the end of your life, will you regret what might have been?  Will you be remembered for your achievements or will your legacy be measured by the lives you touched?

Will your departure be heralded by the applause of a life lived, the applause because you are finally gone, or the soul deafening silence of apathy that you were ever here?

I leave you with these words from Walt Whitman:

“O ME! O life!… of the questions of these recurring;  Of the endless trains of the faithless—of cities fill’d with the foolish;  Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)  Of eyes that vainly crave the light—of the objects mean—of the struggle ever renew’d;  Of the poor results of all—of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me; Of the empty and useless years of the rest—with the rest me intertwined;  The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?    

 Answer.

That you are here—that life exists, and identity; That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse.”

What will your verse say?

"Do not go where the path leads, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

As I sit here, coffee in hand, I can’t help but reflect on my life’s journey thus far.  The pathway has never been a straight line……EVER!  It’s been more of a meandering, winding, curvy path.  In reflecting on my path, I came to a couple of realizations:

First, our lives were not designed to be a race.  Look at the design of the world: there are very few straight lines in nature.  That’s on purpose!  If the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, then consider that the world was not designed to accommodate straight lines.  Perhaps this was so we would have to spend time wandering about and in so doing we see more. 

I’ve seen far too many people head down, “game face on,” pushing toward the end of their lives as if it were the finish line of a race.  They don’t seem to enjoy much of anything.  Their lives are focused on achieving more, earning more, accumulating more, doing more than anyone else.  They are driven!  I’m not saying it’s wrong or bad to achieve, earn, accumulate or do. What I AM saying is that if this is your sole purpose for existing, you are missing out on far too much!

Think about your weekends and vacations (if you take any such time).  When you return to your job, what’s the first thing people ask?  “What did you DO?”  I’ve made a point of spending some of my down time doing absolutely nothing but enjoying being.  You wouldn’t believe the astonished responses I get when I tell people this.  “WHAT? You did nothing on your time off?”  Actually, I did a lot of LIVING on my time off.

Do you go to the Grand Canyon at full speed, glance at the crevice, think “OK done that,” and then race away to the next object?  NO!  We go, we stop, and we are amazed by the beauty of this wonder!  Then, we go back to the “real world” and it’s time to put the nose to the grindstone and charge ahead at full speed.  Why?  And yet we wonder why we have so many stress related illnesses, so many ulcers and heart attacks? We call ourselves “The Human Race” as if someone is going to win. 

SLOW DOWN! Spend time looking around you.   LIVE your life.  After all, you only get a few trips around the sun.

Second, we spend far too much time and effort keeping our walls up.  Think about it…we don’t want anyone to get close to us.  We are very particular about having our privacy.  There are more people on this earth now than ever before, yet we don’t want anyone to get to know us.  We put up false personas, as if we were actors on a stage.  We stifle how we feel, what we think, how we care, because we don’t want anyone to know that we’re human.

Our lives were not meant to be lived alone or in a plastic bubble isolated from the rest of the world.  We are, by design, social creatures!  We NEED others, whether we want to admit it or not.  Don’t believe me?  Go to the desert where nothing else grows and see how long you last alone.

Why is it so difficult for us to be genuine with each other?  If you are hurting, chances are there are several people within a stone’s throw that are hurting too.  Feeling uncertain? Bet there are quite a few others in your office who are feeling uncertain too.  Are you lonely?  Guess what? So are many of the people you come in contact with every day!  If only we would drop our plastic façade and let others see who we truly are, we would find who our genuine friends are truly.  Okay, some people would need to get passed the shock of who we truly are, but we would find people who are just like us.  And they’re a lot closer than we may think.

If only we would take the time to LIVE, we would enjoy our time here a lot more!