Dear Readers,
I'd like to keep it short and sweet this week. The excitement of moving out of my childhood home again (for the fourth time) has hijacked my brain with lists of household errands to run, new habits to adopt, and a need to explore the new surroundings. Mahwah, New Jersey is now my home. Michelle and Sam are my new roommates, only after mingling at a handful of parties over the past few years, and a perfectly-timed revelation that I was looking for a new space while they were looking for a third roommate. Voila!
With all this wonderful change, I'm left to my own devices during most of the daytime while they're at work. I never expected moving out to be the answer to all my life's problems, but it's easy to see how your problems can follow you now. Thankfully, I have discovered the added benefit of controlling how to spend my time.
There is still this burning need in me to experience and complete everything. Some might prescribe it as foolishly striving for perfection. It's ridiculous, we can all agree. I can complete a to-do list twelve pages long and be hungry for more. It could be the tasks are too easy if they are simply crossed out. Hell, Success Magazine isn't banging down my new condo door to chat with me because I can grocery-shop, write in my journal, lift weights, and pour milk in my cereal better than the rest of the world.
The trick is that, despite difficulty, there is always more. The clock keeps on ticking.
What's the solution? Although I'm not 100%, there is something to the process. Perfection is impossible and you wouldn't want it anyway. Life would be boring without the challenge of doing something new. Instead, my thought is we need to embrace the process of activity tighter, not push it away.
My solution is to stop and center myself in the joys of the present. Count your blessings, own your successes, and look at yourself in the mirror and use Dirk Diggler's powerful mantra "I am a star. I'm a star, I'm a star, I'm a star. I am a big, bright, shining star. That's right."
Just like stars and flowers, humans are bound to grow. Every day offers another chance, not to battle the list or the clock, but to find yourself in the things you do. Howard Thurman said it better than most:
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
Until next time...
I explode into space.
-dan