or even walk sixty.
However far you walk, I mean in someone else’s shoes, do it. Try out another genre of personality by putting yourself out there in someone else’s situation. You’ll maybe realize changes you want for your own life, or at least generate some additional tolerance, understanding, and goodwill for another’s path.
Maybe, just maybe, someone will walk in your shoes. That way, you’ll have another cheerleader in your corner…and we could all use another cheerleader, don’t you think?
Finding our limits is tricky.
In your car, on the road, someone’s posted signs. There are even folks in cool uniforms who ride in cars with spin-ey lights to keep you from going too fast.
Why, then, don’t we have those same safeguards in place for the other parts of our lives?
At work, we keep getting more and more and more opportunities for responsibility offered. Our social calendars keep getting more and more and more events placed on the radar.
In reality, we need to be our own patrol officer. We need to ensure we maintain our own limits. It is up to each individual to keep from cutting too loose, taking on too much.
Though, we need to also keep an eye on our fellow motorists, I mean, human beings. If you see your friend or a colleague “doing too much” – let them know. Sometimes when you are in the thick of an overwhelming amount of stuff to do, it’s hard to tell. Pointing out all that someone is doing can help him or her weed out the unimportant weeds.
So, if you see someone, and by “someone” I mean “me”, taking on too much – tell that person (me) to slow down and enjoy the ride. That person (I) will be appreciative. 
In all modes of life, there are the front players and those behind the scenes. Whether you are a classroom teacher who relies on the support from curriculum resources, parents, the district office, your site principal, your fellow colleagues…OR…you are a parent who relies on the support of the day care provider, the teacher, your boss, your pediatrician, the librarian, the neighbor….you get the idea.
We need one another.
You may also have realized by pondering this topic that you are probably someone else’s behind the scenes “pit crew” AND the front line person somewhere else in your life.
Even the President of the United States has a cabinet. He has help. He’s just a spokesperson, the one who gets congratulated when things go well and blamed when things go wrong.
However, it is really a team that succeeds and a team that fails. At least if it’s a good team, no one member can bring down the whole ship. Usually that doesn’t happen.
Check out this link to see an example of how there’s a team of people supporting you as you just move your cursor around the screen. This link will take you to a site that is self-explanatory and relates to this blog topic. Comment on it here to let me know your thoughts on this one.
C-ya!
There is a time for stopping and smelling the roses, for sure.
There isn’t enough said, though, about just GOING. Keep GOING and don’t stop! Moving forward takes a sense of determination that stopping and smelling, roses or anything else for that matter, can halt. Moving forward is important.
Don’t get me wrong, moving forward isn’t the only thing, but….there is a time and a place to stop and appreciate life’s beauty. Then, there is a time to keep plugging along…little by little winning the race.
AND, I know what you are thinking…isn’t life a journey?
Well, yeah. And part of the journey is sprinting a bit – ignoring distractions along the route. There is the time, too, for taking a break. Stopping. Stopping and smelling the flowers, your favorite restaurant wafting, or even just the smell of the city. THEN, there is the slower, steadier paced part of the journey….sometimes staying focused for a period of time, not getting distracted by floral scent of things here and there is what you need in order to arrive at a place where you REALLY want to stop and savor the aroma of life.
I guess it all comes down to picking your rose bushes…I mean, battles.
Having a plan, of some sort, even if the plan is to coast a bit and glide forward without a plan, is important. Some vision of what is desired is what helps you determine whether this is the moment to pause, sniff, and reflect – OR – if this is the time to plug your nose and keep on plugging.
The best part of this journey, this race, this path-thing called life is that YOU are the only one who really knows (or really even cares) about what you do on your way.
Other people may put in their two cents worth here and there (or fifty cents worth all over the place), but YOUR CHOICES and YOUR VISION and YOUR PLAN are all that are really of value.
You live your own life.
I live mine.
May the two coexist, either in a parallel-fashion, or slightly intersecting, even. May they not meet one another in a perpendicular-fashion, though.
My path should not interfere with yours, or vice versa.
I’ll keep going, if needed, not smelling anything….not to bother you, but to not bother me.
You do the same and, I trust, we’ll all have adventurous tales to tell and well-lived lives to live.
Ciao!
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I want a YURT! Walking the farm with some of the dogs Sunset Over Anchorage @ 9pm!
but the scenery and surroundings help make the people.
Go figure, the relationship between man and nature is still one of the most critical pieces to existence. Living in high-density city-land, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that, despite all of the concrete, asphalt, and smog – we live in a habitat born out of a millennium of evolution - growth and change….and it’s STILL GOING ON!
However, as I’m on a visit now to Alaska and experiencing remoteness I’m only now getting a taste of…it still seems the same as home, in some ways. Sure, as I drive to work along the 805 freeway heading South, I’ve never seen a cluster of moose or a pairing of bald eagles. However, when I’m at my “destination” – I interact with animals much like the ones up here…the human animal.
“People are people, so why could it be, you and I could get along so a
awfully,…” comes to mind. Regional differences do give way to regional “flavors” and whatnot, but visiting other places and meeting “new” people – it’s a great reminder that at our purest form, we all just want to fit into a group of kind, caring, and interesting companions.
So, whether you are unhappy with your habitat or your companions within your habitat, realize that each habitat retains the ability to provide you with the basics, flavored for the region you are in…so long as you let it.
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