Moments

February 15, 2010 at 1:31 AM (Passion, school, Work) (busyness, moments, Olympics, school, Work)

These past couple weeks have been odd times, combining busyness at work, trying to catch up on reading for classes and illness. Mixed in there was time with friends, hosting a Super Bowl party and a great evening of food, conversation and basketball spent with my cousin, Bradd.

Overall, though, it’s easy to summarize these past couple weeks as chaotic. Symbolized by the fact that I skipped posting last week, at some level I’ve just been keeping my head above water. Basic survival at its finest!

I don’t offer this as an excuse or to earn your pity. First, it’s my blog — so I don’t need a great excuse for skipping a week! 🙂 And, instead of pity, I hope you’ll join me in finding the special moments within your life that is undoubtedly busy as well.

Let’s explore this a bit further. A couple weeks ago I wrote about finding beauty in the struggle and this post will follow closely in it’s footsteps, because these “moments” that I speak of are the places in my life where I’ve recently found great joy (and even a bit of rest) in the midst of the chaos.

I won’t get into the ugly details, but suffice it to say that these past couple weeks have had me jumping from one urgent task to the next. Nothing like attending to whatever is on fire at the moment! (But, this type of approach to life led me to spend the last several nights sleeping in the guest bed simply because I didn’t want to take the time to put sheets on the master bed. I hope you can see the humor in this as I do; especially, as today I recognized all this led to was having to change the sheets on TWO beds!).

In all of this, though, there have been special moments where I’ve escaped from the hamster wheel to appreciate this life I’m living. Here are a few examples from this past weekend:

– This afternoon I ran two errands, both in preparation for my upcoming client meetings this week. Instead of rushing through them, though, I was surprised by the sun and I enjoyed my time driving and cleaning out my car in the spring-like Seattle weather.

– Tonight I took a study break to make a quick meal. In granting myself a break without the imminent pressure to get back to reading, I made a great salad and leisurely enjoyed a glass of wine with my meal.

– Throughout the weekend I took time to connect with friends and family, even if just through phone calls and texts. A call from my 3-year old niece was easily the most surprising and enjoyable connection of the weekend!

– I’ve always been a multi-tasker, so I’ve had the Olympics on the TV over the past couple of days as I’ve studied, worked and done chores around the house. The stories and events have been a nice means of escape, even if only for a few seconds at a time.

These are the moments that I speak of. The special times where I pause to appreciate the details within the mundane and necessary tasks that fill my day. This is my life’s struggle — to find happiness in the day-to-day tasks. And, this weekend I did well!

I hope you, too, can pause and appreciate those times and places where you can smell the precious scent of life and taste the sweetness of being human,.