I do so enjoy when someone pluses or shares an older post that I’d almost forgotten about. Lots of goodness in this post and the comments. And so much has changed in the time since…
Originally shared by Charles “Chip” Payet
Sweet Memories of NC Mountain Sunsets
I really do find it odd, this dichotomy/paradox of my life. The challenge of being introspective, I guess.
2 weeks ago, I wrote a personal blog post about being so overwhelmed that I had to cut back.: http://goo.gl/V2i7vY
Only 1 week after that, after a 48-hour period in which I suddenly committed myself to even more than I had before trying to cut back, I wrote this blog post on The Law of Unintended Consequences http://goo.gl/9tVgUQ
And the thing is, I THRIVE on this stuff! I love the challenge of pushing myself to constantly learn that the limits I imagine having are nothing more than my imagination!
On the flip side, just a month and a half ago, my family and I were vacationing in a log cabin in the NC Mountains, and I was more relaxed and at peace than I had been in a long time. Truly feeling the oneness of all that exists and letting completely loose of the ten thousand things. It was sublime and serene, and as I sat there on the deck overlooking the valley below, and sipping a delightful Chardonnay, I wondered why I kept striving. Why didn’t I just find a way to drastically simplify? Why didn’t I follow my heart and the immortal words of Henry David Thoreau as spoken by #RobinWilliams character of John Keating in The Dead Poets Society :
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms.
Is this striving that “living deeply and sucking the marrow out of life?” Or was the deep relaxation and peace of the mountains that which I sought/seek? Can e’er these twin forces be reconciled within the breast of mortal man or woman, or must they vie ever for our hearts and minds, ’til on we pass?
Last night, as I soaked in a long, hot bath, I read again the book by Richard Bach: Illusions. The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah. http://goo.gl/lhLniH And I think I remembered that he and I have met somewhere, sometime, someplace before, and he gave me that book as a reminder, so I wouldn’t forget …….
Gina Fiedel Alexandra Riecke-Gonzales David Amerland Sanjiv Manifest Mani Saint-Victor Vincent Messina Lauri Novak Nancy Levan Craig Szymanski Mark Bruce Bruce Marko