This and That (From The Kid)

As I reflect, I tend to remember the highs and the lows. I think of accomplishments, disappointments, times I felt betrayed, things once hoped for coming to fruition, botched opportunities (of my own doing). We so easily attach ourselves to emotional excitement and fulfillment or downright sadness, agony, and pain. This is all part of our human experience. We dramatize everything (hence the popularity of Netflix and reality TV). We have a proclivity to remember things as worse or better than they actually were. We heighten the moment with our narrow perspective, not seeing the brevity of our actions or things happening around us. But in this moment, I spend time reflecting on the “in-between”; the moments that are normal (or what we call normal).

The redundant daily obligations, routines, and moments that dominate our time and energy. We spend a majority of our life in these moments, yet these “in-between” moments are what we so easily forget. I say we pay more attention to the “in-between”, and when I say we, I am of course including myself. Mindlessly meandering through daily routines, tasks, and interactions is not fulfilling. It feels like a to-do list every day that you can not keep up with. We wake up, get ready, put on our social mask, say hello when we are supposed to, do our best to give attention to those who need it when we ourselves need that attention as well, do our job to the best of our ability while complaining (rather than appreciating), we go home and go to bed with the anxiety of doing it all over again. A constant loop of redundancy and that leads to a shallow life without fulfillment.

Making it a point to get more out of the “in-between” is something I am going to commit myself to. I hold a strong belief that if we just focus more on the present, actually being attentive and aware of the things and people that are around us, we can get more out of the “in-between”. Getting out of our own head is difficult. We spend a majority of our time thinking about ourselves. What our schedule is, what we are worried about, how we are perceived by others, and this takes us away from the present moment. We recluse in our thoughts, leaving us inattentive and unaware of the people and things happening around us.

Matthew 6:26 “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?”

This verse gives me peace. I trust God will take care of me regardless of the circumstance. We can spend our whole lives worrying, complaining, coveting, all contributing to a shallow existence. I think people misunderstand this verse at times. In our Americanized way of thinking, we focus on the material. I read this through a spiritual lense. In Matthew 6:25, Jesus says, “Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?”, lending us to not just be concerned about material things. We as humans need love, a sense of purpose, a feeling of belonging, peace, assurance, and hope. God provides us all of these.

Focus on the positive. Spend less time worrying and complaining, and more time letting go of anxiety and appreciating what we have. If we can accomplish this, we will get out of our own head, and we will be able to get more out of the “in-between”.