One word (and reality) that totally escapes my vocab and lifestyle is the elusive “bored”. I ask people how they are doing (which you should think about even asking...) and sometimes I get, “I'm bored..” Bored? This concept of boredom is so completely foreign to me. I guess my thought is if you're bored, find something else to do. Is it really that difficult? One thing I always thank God for is giving me an interesting life. Sometimes things get hectic and I experience moments of frustration but 99.987% of the time my life is flat out interesting. Take this morning for instance...
I headed to a workshop in which I was to learn about volunteer management/recruitment, I arrive at the conference center, walk in and there is not a soul in sight. I thought to myself, “Mmm this doesn't seem quite right?!” So I peeked around a few corners to see if there were any forms of life lingering about...after a few minutes I caught someone coming out of her office who proceeded to tell me that the workshop had been cancelled. Now, to the average car-driving citizen this would be a minor infraction. But for a “PTG” (Public Transportation Gal) we now have an issue. I leave the conference center and head for the nearest hot spot (WiFi and heat itself) I could find, which happened to be the Starbucks in the mall, for breakfast and a warm place to wait for the next bus. The trip from the conference center to the mall was no walk in the park; I felt like Little Red Riding Hood going over the hills and through the woods. After trekking through the icy terrain I made my way to the Starbucks and snuggled into a cup of tea and muffin. Lo and behold a familiar face pops in the cafe, a good friend works in one of the stores across the hall. We give each other the “what are you doing here look” and chat for a moment. Even though things didn't go as expected this morning, the surprises turned out to be great.
A thought struck me as I walked through the icy grass to get to the mall; it may take a little more time but if you keep looking the right path will be presented to you. I could have chosen to walk down a very steep hill that would have lead me to the same destination but I would have inevitably slipped and fell on the way down. I attempted a couple of times to walk down this hill but kept seeing myself laying on my back about half way down so I decided to keep looking for an alternative route. This eventually paid off because after a few minutes a safer, more accessible path became visible.
As I come to yet another moment of my body telling me that I need to slow down I have decided to take a different approach. Listen. I don't want to reach a certain age and deal with the repercussions of not taking care of myself now. So, I'm going to begin taking small steps to move toward the lifestyle my spirit has been craving and prompting me to. Rest is a key factor and burning the candle at both ends really isn't a virtuous quality. For some strange reason our society portrays busyness as a sign of productivity. That picture couldn't be farther from the truth. In my opinion, productivity is based on my passions and responsibilities weaving together to produce my activities. That will differ for everyone being that we all place value in different things. But overall our productivity shouldn't be based on how many tasks we accomplish in a day but how our day actually reflects the passions of our life.
Living Authentically,
G
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