Tell Me Something Fun

It’s a dreary Sunday morning in Madison, WI and I’m sitting here looking into the plans of the next week.  I’m now into the fourth month of Project Kinect and as I sit here sipping my coffee, I can’t help to stop thinking where this day is going.  I mean, I know the end result: I’ll be at a cabin near where I went to high school with my friend Jen and a group of total strangers.  The point I’m making though is at night, before you go to bed, do you ever look back and say, “Wow, I didn’t know that would happen today”? It doesn’t have to be grand or even very significant, but things that surprise you, either good or bad, make you remember that we are only human and miraculous things truly do happen every day.

This last New Years I made a resolution that was very broad but something I felt very compassionate about. “Don’t make a decision until you have to.” This was made for a few different reasons.  One is that I tend to over think every possible decision I make and then have exhausted myself before I even get into those consequences of that decision.  In relation to this resolution, we spend so much extra energy at times when our decision isn’t even needed yet. Here in the Midwest, we tend to start thinking about what we are going to have for dinner before we are even finished with breakfast.  I get it, we’re on the topic of food and I do it too, but there are other, more time relevant decisions to make before dinner comes along.  It isn’t the greatest example but it is what I had while I was sitting here.

As I was getting ready for Project Kinect, not making decisions until I had to has really been beneficial.  It is what decided that I wasn’t going to take a car along with me.  I got a great deal on my storage unit in Los Angeles because of it and I was able to stay at a job I loved for just a little longer to appreciate leaving it. 

The main reason though is because I really love surprises.  My friends all know that I have a phrase that I say more than anything else.  More of a request than a phrase but “Tell me something fun.”  I say it frequently and love what I get back.  It forces the people to around me to think about what is going on in their life: Not just let it slip by with no thought.  By not making a decision until I have to, it allows me to get those moments for myself while I am lying there, just before I go to sleep.  I get surprised when I realize, “wow, I didn’t know that would happen today.”

As you read this, think about what is happening in your life, in the present, and take note of what surprises you.  This is the meat of our lives and if we don’t acknowledge that it is there, then I’m pretty sure we don’t get to find the peaks and valleys in our lives.  The peaks and valleys are the meat of life and that is how we compare everything in order to find out what makes us happy.  “This morning work was absolutely horrible but I had a great nap which I woke to a fantastic dinner!”  The meat is where where the greatness of life is at so you might as well tell me something fun.