Reconnecting Time
This is a blog about a blog about an essay.
Intrigued? I am.
It came across my Facebook feed but I ignored it (ironically because I was too ‘busy’). Then my wife sent me an email with it as a link. (I’m never too busy to read my wife’s emails, they’re always good).
So I clicked the link. The first sentence of Laurie Ruettimann’s Blog references the essay. The second sentence commands you to “read it right now”. So I did, and now here we are with me writing this post about a blog about an essay and you reading it. Have you read the essay and Laurie’s blog? Read them both right now. 🙂
It’s difficult to think I can add more than what these two have contributed in their respective works. I love Laurie’s process for never answering an email from someone she hates and never having a conversation with someone she doesn’t respect. How refreshing! Even better the “never having a phone conversation or meeting with someone who sucks”.
As Laurie found out, “adulthood is complicated”, and the best laid plans and process don’t always lend themselves to the realities of life. As it turns out that’s where most of us run into trouble.
We read posts like this or see a program or video about smelling the roses of life and we get all fired up, until “life happens” and suddenly we’re pulled right back into the ‘busy’ trap of living. Except we’re not really living are we? We’re mostly busy ‘living’ other people’s lives, doing what other people want us to do, or expect us to do in order to ‘pay the bills’ or worse yet so that we can convince ourselves that this is just ‘how it is’.
We’ve forgotten those dreams of our childhood and even the yearning of our adulthood to actually live OUR lives and enjoy the limited time we have on this planet.
This isn’t some pie-in-the-sky post about jumping off the merry-go-round of corporate America or uprooting and moving to some isolated island to fulfill your creative passion (unless that’s what you really want to do). Too often we get caught up in the trap of all or nothing. We think that we must experience something completely and to the fullest extent possible or not at all.
My plea is simply to do something, anything, no matter how large or small, how long or short, but something Every Day to begin reclaiming your life.
Take 5 minutes to read a book, or listen to music (without looking at your phone), or take a walk, or feed the birds or ducks, or go window shopping. Anything, that feeds your soul. Do it for 5 minutes. Do it for a week.
Next week, increase it to 10 minutes.
Keep going. Find out what speaks to you. Reconnect with your life, your dreams, your passions.
After all, that ‘busy’ trap that you’re caught in, how long have you been doing it? And why are you doing it again? Wasn’t the point of all this so that you could have the life you want?
What was that life again?
Maybe it’s time to find out.
COMMUNITY
DEFINITION: A group of individuals, with unique talents, working together to achieve a common goal.
Our Work
Journey Institute Press
TEDx Cherry Creek
Elevating Community Voices | Empowering Storytelling
The mission of the Journey Institute is to elevate and empower people in underserved communities, especially women and youth, lifting up the voices of those who might otherwise not be heard. To tell the stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things to help their community.