One Body, Many Parts

How often does an hour or two during your life end up surprising you?

A couple hours of my day honestly surprised me today.

This morning I met a friend for coffee and a quick breakfast.  We had made plans last week to meet and discuss some stuff we had briefly exchanged views on.  Because of this previous huddle, I figured that I knew what we are going to talk about.

I really should not “figure” on situations like this.

The first half hour was catching up on his children and an exploration of his family’s summer vacation.  Soon the conversation turned to a book that we have both read, “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years”, by Donald Miller.

I gained much from this conversation.

Here is what I gained:

• there are many different parts of any endeavor and if any of those parts are missing, there will be failure
• many times in order to see your dream realized you have to give it up and let it become someone else’s dream or morph into someone else’s dream or vision
• there isn’t a whole lot in life you can accomplish all by yourself

As the day went on, as usual, I forgot about our conversation until I sat down after dinner and reminisced on the morning.  I gained much and I’m glad I had a chance tonight to sit down and get those thoughts onto something that will be be more permanent than my mind.

The next time someone asks you for coffee and you think you know what the discussion will be about, I invite you to go into it with no assumptions.

When was the last time life surprised you?

…running through my mind…

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

I read a book several months ago that continues to shake up my life. This book very eloquently displayed that I was not telling a story worth telling with my life.  As I sat around and thought about it, I got offended.  Why do I care what other people think of my life and whether or not I’m telling a story with that life?  As the weeks went by, I realized that ”I” care if I’m telling a story with my life.  I realized that this author was not saying to impress everyone around me with some mad skills, he was simply saying;

tell a story with your life

If you are telling a story, someone will listen and pay attention.  The scary thing is that you don’t get to pick who is listening; who is inspired by the story; or who is offended, you have to give that control up.  Tell this story for no one but yourself and God, and don’t try to tell someone else’s story – tell your own.  

As time passed by, all this makes perfect sense, I wasn’t telling a story, I was just getting by in life (and still am to a certain extent, I’m working on that though).

If this has peaked your interest, this book was authored by Donald Miller. I have been a reader of his for several years; of his books and his blog http://donmilleris.com/ . He continuously tells his story in such a way that I feel as though he is telling my story.  He demonstrates the human condition in a way that is not offensive; yet he can drive a point home with as little as one word, and you are stuck thinking about that point for weeks. This latest book that has harassed me for quite a while is titled,  “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years”.  I invite you to check it out if this was even the least bit inspiring.  http://donmilleris.com/books/

When was the last time you read a book that changed the way you look at your life?

A quiet week without running.

I ran this afternoon in 72 degree weather on November 1st!!!  What a great day.  My only sadness was that up until today I have not run for a week because of a shin splint that has caused me a lot of pain.  Mentally, it was vital that I run this week, yet I did not.   I probably should have just powered through the pain and run.  I’ll remember that.

As I got well into my second mile all I could think about was self-addiction for some reason.  I kept going over a quote – or what I could remember of it at the time – from Donald Miller; 

“…no drug is so powerful as the drug of self…there is no addiction so powerful as self-addiction.”

As I thought more and more about this quote, it began to clear up something in my head.  I’ll give you a little background.

For several months now, I’ve had had a grudge against someone who is acting very self-centered.  Every conversation I have with this person ends up about this person, no matter what else is going on around us;  every trouble in the world, does not amount to the trouble in this persons life; every story of a person that has been wronged, does not come close to how this person has been wronged. 

OK, enough….you get the point. 

I have held back from several undertakings over the last few months because this person could be involved with the outcome.  This problem has affected my ability to follow what I’m impassioned to do at times.

As I was getting to the end of my run, I was feeling pretty good about my assessment of this person and I was looking forward to retrieving the actual quote to back-up my methodical evaluation of him/her.  I was sure that this was a textbook example of a self-centered person.  Less than a half of a mile from the end of my run, I saw stacked in the woods campaign signs from a campaign that I helped out on last spring.  With the leaves falling off of the trees I was able to see what had been hidden all summer.  You see, I had replaced sign after sign on the corner adjacent to the woods for the person that I supported during an election.  Now I see all of them stacked neatly in the woods.  Normally I would have been enraged over this, but for some reason I realized something in myself.  I realized that I’m self-centered too.  I wanted those signs posted on that public corner, someone else didn’t.

We are all self-centered to different extents.  I am no different.

This addiction to myself – to my ideas and ideals – is truly a drug.  How do you break an addiction to something that you have such intimate contact with 24/7?  How do you get rid of this drug that is pulsing through your veins?  Sitting where I’m at right now, it seems as though every addiction in my life is just a manifestation of my addiction for myself. 

I was addicted to alcohol for years for a number of reasons, but the main one was because I was constantly thinking about what I wanted, not what was best for everyone around me (and in the end, best for me too). 

I am addicted to the latest gadgets to make my life easier or more cool, because it’s all about me. 

I’m addicted to coffee,……..OK, we’re stopping here.  I’m not giving up my coffee!!!

The point of all this?  I’m just as self-centered as the person I’ve got a problem with.  The problem is not with the other person, the problem is with me.  I can’t change the other person, but I can change me; I can change how I react to the other person. 

I’m glad I looked up that quote when I got home, so I could properly diagnose my previous assessment.  It’s true, I suffer from self-addiction, I’m a textbook case, and I hope to do something about it.

 

…running through my mind…