Basketball season must be right around the corner. It's literally starting to filter into my dreams.
Two nights ago I had the mysterious dream about chasing the varsity basketball coach around the high school halls to find a VCR tape of unknown content. Last night was a montage of scenes also located in NCHS and equally unrealistic.
I'm sitting in a darkened hallway where players are loping out to get a drink of water. They are like soldiers fresh off a 24-hour battle, weary to the core, leaning against the walls for support. Evidently the coach is running them through nearly inhuman layers of sprints and other conditioning exercises with the point of being the most fit team in the state. On day 1 though, they are clearly not.
Now I'm on the court playing in a practice. We are running the offense we instituted last year.
I am in the corner near the three-point line.
My teammate on the wing is LeBron James.
At some point the flow of the offense has me standing next to LeBron. He is taller than his bio indicates. I only come up to his elbow.
Now I'm the point guard. I dribble up the court. Until, unguarded, I dribble the ball off my hip and it rolls out of bounds. At least part of it was realistic!
Tryouts start Monday. So psyched!
Friday, November 4, 2011
Thursday, November 3, 2011
More Than Meets The Eye
A friend of mine and I were exchanging e-mails for a while. Suddenly his replies got shorter. I'd try to start up more conversation, and he might respond hours later. With one word answers, and apologies. One night his head hurt. Another night he was tired. Or he was out with friends. Never initiating any conversation my way.
I was tempted just to let this be a friendship that would drop, to walk away from this one-sided affair. Then I thought "What if there's something going on in his personal life that's distracting him? I'd hate to give up on a relationship because of a simple misunderstanding."
So I sent another note his way. "Do you have any ideas to keep things fresh? My e-mails seem to be falling flat - one word answers, long delays, and such."
He wrote back and explained that he'd been stressed out because of his sister's wedding this weekend. After it was over, he'd write back and we'd get back in the flow. And we did.
Rushing to judgment can be like rushing over a cliff. Sometimes, it pays really well to look around first.
I was tempted just to let this be a friendship that would drop, to walk away from this one-sided affair. Then I thought "What if there's something going on in his personal life that's distracting him? I'd hate to give up on a relationship because of a simple misunderstanding."
So I sent another note his way. "Do you have any ideas to keep things fresh? My e-mails seem to be falling flat - one word answers, long delays, and such."
He wrote back and explained that he'd been stressed out because of his sister's wedding this weekend. After it was over, he'd write back and we'd get back in the flow. And we did.
Rushing to judgment can be like rushing over a cliff. Sometimes, it pays really well to look around first.
Stepping Back
Today was another mid-sleep wake-up morning. The eyes fluttered open around 4 a.m. for reasons unknown. Oh, I remember the dream that accompanied it - involving me chasing the high school basketball coach around the halls trying to find a VCR tape (insert "huh?") - but it's a mystery as to what the primary factor to my early arousal was.
During those first few waking moments, or at various points throughout a typical day, I'm at my weakest mentally. Thoughts spin through my head that make little sense hours later. Often they're overblown feelings of worry or irritation. Why isn't Mary responding to my e-mail? How am I going to find time to get new tires on my car? Why does Ken put up so much resistance at work? Why did I waste my time trying to help Alan?
The mind's not a machine, it's more like an ocean. Vast in its power for good or bad, beautiful when it's calm, often uncontrollably cyclical with highs and lows.
What I love at moments like this, sitting here in the pre-pre-dawn hours after a half-night of sleep, is our capacity within our minds to do what we can't in the ocean - to rise above it.
To just step back!
We control our lives only to an extent. Call it nature, fate, or God, but there is far more beyond our power than within it. Yet, it's almost addictively easy to measure our worth or success according to our ability to gain the upper hand over things beyond our bodies. We may writhe at times in our compulsion to influence our neighbors and family. It's the infinite hill. And one that we are not required to climb.
We have freedom!
We are not masters of the universe. Nor are we slaves to it. We look at stars, each a thousand times more massive, brilliant and powerful than ourselves, and what is it to us? A fascinating decoration of the creation we live in, nothing more. The people around us are much the same. We are passengers, same as them. Yes, we have total control over our own thoughts, dreams, attitudes as we ride along. We influence our surroundings in varying degrees because of it. We treasure the beauty in others. But the deepest sense of peace I find is when I let that be enough. When I define success entirely apart from how others act, and entirely within living wholesomely.
In moments of weakness, I find happiness when I step back as ruler of the earth, the building, or the person across the table for even a few heartbeats. When I allow what will be, to be. When I look around with sunlight. When I simply smile, and breathe, and savor right where I am.
Life is good!
During those first few waking moments, or at various points throughout a typical day, I'm at my weakest mentally. Thoughts spin through my head that make little sense hours later. Often they're overblown feelings of worry or irritation. Why isn't Mary responding to my e-mail? How am I going to find time to get new tires on my car? Why does Ken put up so much resistance at work? Why did I waste my time trying to help Alan?
The mind's not a machine, it's more like an ocean. Vast in its power for good or bad, beautiful when it's calm, often uncontrollably cyclical with highs and lows.
What I love at moments like this, sitting here in the pre-pre-dawn hours after a half-night of sleep, is our capacity within our minds to do what we can't in the ocean - to rise above it.
To just step back!
We control our lives only to an extent. Call it nature, fate, or God, but there is far more beyond our power than within it. Yet, it's almost addictively easy to measure our worth or success according to our ability to gain the upper hand over things beyond our bodies. We may writhe at times in our compulsion to influence our neighbors and family. It's the infinite hill. And one that we are not required to climb.
We have freedom!
We are not masters of the universe. Nor are we slaves to it. We look at stars, each a thousand times more massive, brilliant and powerful than ourselves, and what is it to us? A fascinating decoration of the creation we live in, nothing more. The people around us are much the same. We are passengers, same as them. Yes, we have total control over our own thoughts, dreams, attitudes as we ride along. We influence our surroundings in varying degrees because of it. We treasure the beauty in others. But the deepest sense of peace I find is when I let that be enough. When I define success entirely apart from how others act, and entirely within living wholesomely.
In moments of weakness, I find happiness when I step back as ruler of the earth, the building, or the person across the table for even a few heartbeats. When I allow what will be, to be. When I look around with sunlight. When I simply smile, and breathe, and savor right where I am.
Life is good!
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Survival School
"I won't say ours was a tough school, but we used to write essays like 'What I'm Going to Be If I Grow Up.'" - Lenny Bruce
How To Get More Done
To paraphrase time-management expert Julie Morgenstern: "Don't just jump into the fray of your day; in fact, try to avoid the fray entirely. Sit down for five to ten minutes before the start of the workday (better yet, the night before) to plan what needs to be done and when."
I often wake up in the shower each workday morning by deciding upon the one or two main goals I want to accomplish. The rest of the day is limbo; if I get ten visitors in my office I'll be doing well to hit those goals, and if not then I should be able to surpass them. The key is to have something to hold onto, that small symbol of success, when I'm tempted to read an extra ten e-mails that would otherwise distract me.
Many days I hit the goals, and too many days I don't. Those latter days are shrinking though. Defining what success will be at the start of the day helps keep me energized when I reach the end, without searching for a reason to feel satisfied about what I've accomplished. Often, the discipline it takes to stay focused on those goals derives as much sense of victory as anything, even more so than the value of the completed task itself.
I often wake up in the shower each workday morning by deciding upon the one or two main goals I want to accomplish. The rest of the day is limbo; if I get ten visitors in my office I'll be doing well to hit those goals, and if not then I should be able to surpass them. The key is to have something to hold onto, that small symbol of success, when I'm tempted to read an extra ten e-mails that would otherwise distract me.
Many days I hit the goals, and too many days I don't. Those latter days are shrinking though. Defining what success will be at the start of the day helps keep me energized when I reach the end, without searching for a reason to feel satisfied about what I've accomplished. Often, the discipline it takes to stay focused on those goals derives as much sense of victory as anything, even more so than the value of the completed task itself.
Foster The People - Don't Stop - Lyrics & Live
After I'd heard this song about ten dozen times in auto commercials it had grown on me. I didn't know the band, so searched for a few words I could understand from the lyrics. Lo and behold:
And to satisfy the cravings of those who love to see a cool live stage presence.
Now, that's the way to wake up in the morning!
And to satisfy the cravings of those who love to see a cool live stage presence.
Now, that's the way to wake up in the morning!
A Different Kind Of Ethics
As I was leaving the job yesterday I thought about the fact that I'd passed the big boss on my way out the door. In my jacket it was clear that I was headed home for the day just after normal quitting time. Undoubtedly by his nature, he was going to be there quite a while longer.
I wondered how, if at all, he'd judge my leaving at that time. Even though he was aware of no pressing deadline that I might have, perhaps he questioned my work ethic nonetheless.
What kind of person am I, if my work ethic is less than his?
I don't often think about that phrase "work ethic." It sounds noble. Somehow the term "farmer's work ethic" rings better still. A sense of deep commitment.
Commitment to what, though?
What I think I have is a "life ethic." My personal commitment is to making the most of my gifts, to following my passions, to apply my strengths. If that leads to a certain job that I can pour myself into boundlessly without a blink, then the life ethic will also be a work ethic.
I think that a life ethic brings out the best in the people we were created to be. It empowers us to overcome circumstance. It is ethical in its own way.
Life's too short to be trapped in someone else's ethics. There is a champion's path lying out there waiting to be found and strode to victory.
I wondered how, if at all, he'd judge my leaving at that time. Even though he was aware of no pressing deadline that I might have, perhaps he questioned my work ethic nonetheless.
What kind of person am I, if my work ethic is less than his?
I don't often think about that phrase "work ethic." It sounds noble. Somehow the term "farmer's work ethic" rings better still. A sense of deep commitment.
Commitment to what, though?
What I think I have is a "life ethic." My personal commitment is to making the most of my gifts, to following my passions, to apply my strengths. If that leads to a certain job that I can pour myself into boundlessly without a blink, then the life ethic will also be a work ethic.
I think that a life ethic brings out the best in the people we were created to be. It empowers us to overcome circumstance. It is ethical in its own way.
Life's too short to be trapped in someone else's ethics. There is a champion's path lying out there waiting to be found and strode to victory.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)