Just start writing/speaking
One of the lessons I've learned in life over the course of my brief, 34 years of existence, is that lots of life is spontaneous. Yes, we have our daily plans programmed into our palm pilots, written in our day planners, etc. But what about those random conversations with people that we run into while picking up coffee at Caribou? How about the conversations we have with our friends when we just pick up the phone, or the conversation over dinner with family and friends? We can plan to show up, but the content is rarely planned.
Living life fully is a courageous act. When we show up and don't know what to say, do we risk just letting the words come out? Have we ever just let the words tumble freely from our mouths and hearts in a moment? Or have we listened deeply to another, put aside our next "brilliant" insight or comment, to respond exactly to what the other person has said to us? Are we fully invested in the moment with another person, or are we physically present, but mentally absent? I hope that all of us courageously show up completely for each other. It seems to me such acts of courage are more often than not rare; Cell phones ring, watches beep indicating times up and time to move to the next project, we have another "important" item to get to on our plans.
I'm as guilty of this as the next person. On the best days I can be fully present for those around me, and other days I feel scattered and distracted by the crush of the "to do"s of life.
In January I'm heading to India for two weeks to work with the folks from Bible Faith Lutheran Church. Eric, my traveling companion, was telling me this morning that while we are there, we will travel from village to village to visit churches there. However, he said, the joke is that if you see someone killing a chicken while you're in the village, be prepared to stay awhile. Their going to make dinner and you're invited. It would be rude to move on because we just so "busy." While I love the conveniences of modern America and the technology we have to move into the future, I believe we sacrifice important relationship time to interact with technology or our work.
Maybe this hasn't made the most sense. I hope it has made some sense. Here's the truth, I just let the words flow on to the page. When I logged on to write today's blog I had no idea what I was going to write. I simply showed up and started writing. I'm glad I did. Thanks for reading.
Living life fully is a courageous act. When we show up and don't know what to say, do we risk just letting the words come out? Have we ever just let the words tumble freely from our mouths and hearts in a moment? Or have we listened deeply to another, put aside our next "brilliant" insight or comment, to respond exactly to what the other person has said to us? Are we fully invested in the moment with another person, or are we physically present, but mentally absent? I hope that all of us courageously show up completely for each other. It seems to me such acts of courage are more often than not rare; Cell phones ring, watches beep indicating times up and time to move to the next project, we have another "important" item to get to on our plans.
I'm as guilty of this as the next person. On the best days I can be fully present for those around me, and other days I feel scattered and distracted by the crush of the "to do"s of life.
In January I'm heading to India for two weeks to work with the folks from Bible Faith Lutheran Church. Eric, my traveling companion, was telling me this morning that while we are there, we will travel from village to village to visit churches there. However, he said, the joke is that if you see someone killing a chicken while you're in the village, be prepared to stay awhile. Their going to make dinner and you're invited. It would be rude to move on because we just so "busy." While I love the conveniences of modern America and the technology we have to move into the future, I believe we sacrifice important relationship time to interact with technology or our work.
Maybe this hasn't made the most sense. I hope it has made some sense. Here's the truth, I just let the words flow on to the page. When I logged on to write today's blog I had no idea what I was going to write. I simply showed up and started writing. I'm glad I did. Thanks for reading.
posted by Mike Weaver at 3:00 PM
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