Thursday, January 24, 2008

I want 7 days


Do you ever notice how people count down the week days? At my job, I sit at a large desk in the main lobby and I always make it a point to ask people how their day is going and try to say something to make them smile. Recently, I have noticed that when I ask how someone is doing, they usually make some comment about "counting down till friday" or "it's Wednesday! Hump day!" or "One more day and this weeks done." And this got me thinking; why do we spend 5 out of the 7 days we have in a week counting down because of how excited we are about the 2 days that we consider to be our "good" days...where we really enjoy life. So, this probably means that we waste about 260 days of our year because we only consider about 105 of them to be good...to be enjoyable...to live what we really consider "life".


A book that I have fallen in love with, "Cold Tangerines" by Shauna Niequist, has inspired me to live beyond the weekend...to bring great life into the every day moments that we so frequently take for granted. I would like to share with you this passage from her book:


"But this is what I'm finding, in glimpses and flashes, this is it. This is it, in the best possible way. That thing I'm waiting for, that adventure, that movie-score worthy experience unfolding gracefully. This is it. Normal, daily life tickling by on our streets and sidewalks, in our houses and apartments, in our beds and at our dinner tables, in our dreams and prayers and fights and secrets-this pedestrian life is the most precious thing any of us will ever experience . I believe that this way of living, this focus on the present, the daily, the tangible, this intense concentration not on news headlines but the flowers growing in your own garden, the children growing in your own home, this way of living has the potential to open up the heavens, to yield a glittering handful of diamonds where a second ago there was coal. This way of living and noticing and building and crafting can crack through the movie sets and soundtracks that keep us waiting for our own life stories to begin and set us free to observe the lives we have been creating without even realizing it. I don't want to wait anymore. I choose to believe that there is nothing more sacred or profound than this day. I choose to believe that there may be a thousand big moments embedded in this day, waiting to be discovered like tiny shards of gold. The big moments are the daily, tiny moments of courage and forgiveness and hope that we extend to one another. That's the drama of life, swirling all around us, and generally I don't even see it because I'm too busy waiting to become whatever it is I think I am about to become. The big moments are in every hour, every conversation, every meal, every meeting." -Shauna Niequist


I want to choose to live EACH day, Monday, Tuesday, Wendnesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I want my life to be full of days that I feel I have made the most of life and the moments and people around me.

1 comment:

April E. :) said...

you my dear...inspirational. Thanks for making me think today :)