Life is Life
Hey Friend,
It has been a week of book activity, planning for the future and the weather warming up. It was above 30° yesterday which felt like 70°. It's wild how one temperature in one region can feel so different in another region. My mom and brother live in the Orlando area and they dipped into the 30's and it sounded catastrophic. Point of reference creates meaning for everything.
Prior to the heatwave here, my beautiful bride and I took a short road trip last Saturday to Stillwater. Not Oklahoma, but here in Minnesota along the St. Croix River a small town with quaint shops and restaurants exists. It's a 45 minute drive from our home. It was blistering cold! Unbeknownst to us, there had recently been an Ice Sculpture competition that brings in teams from around the world.
Yes. You read that right. Other countries sent teams to compete. First, I never knew such a thing existed. Second, I never would have guessed "teams" in other countries would travel to participate in such an endeavor. Hopefully you can tell by the pictures they were uniquely magnificent and some of them unusual.
Michelle and I were freezing so we didn't stand and admire them long. I had so many questions however. Like did they have just one ginormous chunk of ice they whittled down? If so, how did they get that big of piece of ice? If not, did they thaw then freeze, then thaw then freeze again to make shapes. They spent a full week creating these frozen marvels.
LEMONADE
it's the ultimate expression of taking a current reality, which may be deemed difficult or challenging, and fashioning beauty out of it. Isn't that what creates wonder - the emergence of something amazing in the midst of personal hardship. Aren't you in awe of people who truly take the lemons of their life and transform them into tasty lemonade?
Which makes me curious as to why so many humans go to great lengths to avoid painfully arduous scenario's. Of course, I get it, but also so much richness comes from the struggle. In our collective effort to achieve comfort, our existence is much more bland. The technicolor life is earned through tribulations. Don't despise your pain. Look for an opportunity to transform it into a work of art.
MINDSHIFT
What if all the things you've been complaining about or disappointed in, you reassessed as the tools and colors to create something unexpectedly magnificent?
SELF-INFLICTED
With the first half of my adult life in the non-profit space, there were numerous times we formulated our own pain. In our efforts to serve teenagers and create a wholly remarkable experience, we self-inflicted difficulties. One summer I decided we needed to assign seats to our 1000 attendees and rotate them nightly, so everyone got a "close to the stage" experience. When I shared this idea my camp director said "That's preposterous!" He was both hilarious and accurate.
I decided if we could assign bunks we could assign seats. I had a master of logistics, Nicole, who figured it out. Prior to this idea, kids would stand in line for an hour or more in the hot Oklahoma sun, just to get up close. Fights would break out. It was not a good vibe. To implement this new process and structure it took all of our team getting on board with enforcing it and changing a way of doing things that had been in place for 15 years. The result was peace.
MINDSHIFT
What if instead of avoiding hard things, you proactively initiated an effort that you knew was going to require sacrifice from you, but the end result might just offer hope?
LIFE IS LIFE
You know the phrase "Life is Hard?" What if it's not? What if it's just life. What if "Life is Life" and our difficulty rating is based on an inaccurate scale? What if we've perverted the scale and the ease we aspire towards is actually what's worse for our soul, relationships and future? Is it possible we've misinterpreted our pain? Anytime we work out or exert ourselves we expect pain and soreness to follow - which is a good thing because it indicates we're developing strength and muscles.
Ease creates mediocre ugliness.
Difficulty creates excellent beauty.
The ice sculptures were a startling reminder that reframing our tormenting irritations might just produce something spectacular. If you think 36° is cold, ask someone in Minnesota for a second opinion. There is always more than one or two ways to interpret reality. Lean into the discomfort and discover your own masterpiece.
SHIFTING
I hope this week you find gratitude in hardship knowing your energies are creating something meaningful and lovely - building strength in your character and thinking.
#ShiftAway
THE AUDIO BOOK IS STILL LIVE ON AMAZON. I am the narrator and it's by far my favorite version of the book!
