Skip to main content

Give me a Break

We all need downtime. Farmers know to leave land fallow for a period to allow the soil to regain the nutrients necessary for a full crop the season thereafter. If we run our bodies at full throttle consistently throughout the year, our bodies will force us to take a break, but it will be no fun: it'll be in a hospital or in an emergency room. We're build to require rest.

This Memorial Day weekend is intensely special: we pause to honor the brave who take action to protect our American Way. Nothing's perfect: so America can be criticized for many flaws, but all in all we do many wonderful things for humankind and our military folks sometimes give their lives so we can keep pursuing the dream of America.

Today, as part of my break from work, my partner and I had the privilige of hearing stories of New York City on a bus tour from Sherwood. He's pretty amazing--Vietnam buddies who died close by, close running partners who died in the 9/11 attacks--he's glad to be alive and shares his love of the city with visitors from all over the world. We were both moved to tears, especially as he opined about a world without war (a messed up way to solve problems), terrorism, racism and homophobia. The juxtaposition was startling and powerful. We have to do better he exhorted. Humankind has to find a way. I almost choked up again when we passed the Vietnam Memorial in the city. He shared his experiences and the resulting PTSD and how he works to keep it together to move forward. And he shared his joy about life today. You'd never know from his face, the way he carries himself so assuredly in the world, the terrors he's lived through. He's real--a true face for service rendered and respect due.

And in that moment, I saw how purposeful we all can be. We can love ourselves better, hold our families closer, our partners and let that love seep into our relationships with co-workers towards work we love, and to the strangers we touch each day. We can show each other basic respect. War is a mess and we need better ways to sort out differences. This world can be better than it is and it starts with us. We were inspired, our wells are re-filling and we know that after this break we'll return to work with softer edges, be more productive, and more loving.

Live well and salute our country's brave.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It Gets Better

I spent some time watching the It Gets Better videos last night. Moving stuff. My favorite is the singing from the Chicago Gay Men's Chorus. It's wild how song works. The world needs all our talents. I'm good at storytelling. I'm good at helping humans align their being with their doing. To get really good at what I do, I constantly have to get better at aligning my own being with my doing. It's hard work. I think our careers help us focus on our deepest wounding as human beings, and as we get better, we develop power in that very area where we're broken. We get stronger than most other humans around that and we can GIVE that strength to others to help them along on the human journey. And that's our career. I think firemen saw some hopeless stuff growing up and are COMPELLED to run into burning buildings to do the impossible task of saving someone from fire. Nurses run TO broken bones and tend to them. I run to broken souls: I see someone struggling wi...
Post a Comment
Read more

I came home HAPPY tonight

Life will never be perfect. I left the office today with a pile of "to-do" on my desk that makes my head spin. And yet, I carved out time today to do the following: 1. have a powerful yet shortened work out this morning that cleared my head and got my blood pumping. When I hit the office this morning, I hit it hard and strong, muscling through an anxiety of mammoth proportion about how I was going to get ANYTHING on my plate done. 2. pause and do networking at an industry conference. That raised my sights, beyond my little desk and day to day concerns and showed me the bigger picture. Seeing folks at a career fair quickly snapped me back to reality: I'm lucky to have a job I love in the industry I am most fond of, and in the function I care deeply about, working with people on my team I love and with colleagues to serve whom I respect. Bollywog that it's overwhelming: I'll find healthy, collaborative ways to slog through this period. 3. I managed my netw...
Post a Comment
Read more

When you can no longer bear the pain

When you can no longer bear the pain, bare your teeth. Wince: yeah, predatory animals will probably notice and turn you into appetizer, however, it gives your body the visceral response that generates the natural defenses. Grrr: it's than lion-baring show of powerful biting tools that let's others know you have the chops to turn yumminess into nutrition. Wink. Smile: sometimes it's a forced smile.  Sometimes it's a zen-like smile of acceptance and sometimes it's shadowed with a Cheshire-whimsy.  My doctor kept saying through my Odyssey-like journey over the past few days from "horrible breathing noises" to something he felt safe sending me home with, that it was my smile that was his ultimate measure of my health.  The untrained eye knows your true warm loving irrepressible smile and that it comes from a deep pleasure source. Socially, we're trained to at least respect the forced smile.  We may be sure of, and respond subtly to an ANGRY force...
Post a Comment
Read more