Cruising through life

Written on February 4, 2011

As I write I’m sitting on a porch of the Celebrity Solstice enjoying cutting through the ocean, watching the moon crawl into the sky. 

It’s clear that I live a very fortunate existence with new opportunities that enable me to enjoy frequent travel, considerable time to spend on all my passions, and connection with a host of new people and entities. 

The Bay Area has offered me a new kind of stretch that is reminiscent of a great yoga class.  That time when you move into a pose and the simple palm of the instructors hand making a simple but eye opening adjustment -- experiencing the pose with more confidence and grace.  It brings thoughts of ascending Maslow’s hierarchy, as it seems much easier to reach when the foundation feels solid.

Though I’m indulging in this time and space, I’m also humbled by those things that I could be putting intention into.  I was particularly inspired by those in my life who are sharing their new explorations for 2011: Meeshi, Aaron, and Kari.

Meeshi wrote about dissolutions which really got me thinking about the things I’d like to give up to make space for something new to emerge.  Below are some of the things that I would like to dissolve, at least experimentally, for a time if not indefinitely.

I’m letting go of:

• Precisely scheduling time with friends.  I noticed an ever present “ugh” when I would get to the day of a scheduled friend date.  It’s analogous to how I feel when someone asks me what I want to eat on Saturday when it’s Tuesday.  Thus far I have replaced scheduling with spontaneous day of hanging out and that has proven to be much much better for me, and I think for my friend’s too.  I feel more energetic in spending time with people and less “ugh” when I feel like spending the time otherwise.
• Doing things out of obligation.  I’ve spent quite a while saying “yes” to things out of obligation or guilt rather than that I have the enthusiasm to participate.  Steve, my housemate, helped me to see this more one day by observing that when one does something because they want to the quality and energy of the effort put in is greater.
• Spending so much down time in front of the computer.  Currently this has been replaced with more time outside.  My favorite thing thus far has been to do walking meetings instead of the standard coffee shop or office.
• Using repetitive phrases.  “Cool,” “That’s right,” etc....boring!  And also tuned out.  I’d like to replace these phrases with more time and space before comment.
• Driving conversations with questions.  So, it’s quite easy for me to connect with people  because I fire off questions ad naseum until the interaction is done.  It’s rare that I let a silence sit or that a person is able to ask me something for very long without me turning it back on them.

Kari has reminded me through her new blog to try new things.  So I have, and some of them after suppressing hesitation or fear:

• Participating in a “stupid human trick” involving counterbalance without knowing what I was getting into.
• Using a power tool while on a ladder.
• Saying yes to opportunities as they come up instead of mulling them over so much.

That's all I can think of at the moment...but I'm excited to see what else comes out of these new practices.  Thanks for reading!