#365Gratitude Day 296: Up for anything

It's early.

Sunrise isn't for another 45 minutes or so.

I've got a beautifully long day ahead of me, filled with work, writing, and podcasting until midnight or so.  

I feel positively wealthy with time.  

I love this feeling.  I love waking up, rested, and feeling like an empty vessel waiting to be filled. I have only the loosest sense of what the day will bring.  Anything could happen.

I was saying to a friend on Twitter yesterday, who was lamenting some currently-and-possibly-soon-to-be-happening misfortunes that uncertainty is what makes life beautiful.  

Sure, there are some "very-likelies" - like if you take a breathe in, and hold it, it's pretty likely that you'll be exhaling next.  Shove yourself off your chair.  Pretty likely, you'll meet the floor, next.  But those things are trivial, tiny.  In the bigger expanse of your life, things are positively vague.  I remember when I was in high school, and looking at colleges, I told my mother I had no interest in the Washington, DC area.  I insisted there was simply no way I would wind up there.

I've lived here for over 20 years now.  

There are these two Lao-tzu quotes I adore, that speak to the beauty of uncertainty, and what it means for one's life.

"If you do not change direction, you may wind up where you are heading"

"When I let go of what I am, I become that which I may yet be."

How beautiful.

#365Gratitude Day 295: My superhero lifestyle

So, here's the thing. I'm Mako Allen, podcaster, author, age player.  I'm also NOT that guy. In my "other life", I'm married, live outside Washington, DC, work in technology, and am owned by two very lovely cats. 

It's a bit like being a superhero. Often as I'm riding the train, I'm doing podcast producer work from my phone or tablet, booking guests, returning show email, or writing fiction.  

It can be a little weird. I'll be in some boring meeting, talking about release schedules or code debt, and my brain is off zooming through the kinky skies,  looking for the next thing I need to do in my other life.  Sometimes I feel like I'm just PRETENDING to be the vanilla me. 

That's not a great metaphor, but you'll have to forgive me, food metaphors are my jam. (See?)

Weird as it is, I'm grateful for the duality. While it can be odd, and tiring, it makes my life very exciting.  

Some days, I don't feel like my day job is going anywhere. It's slow work to gain technical proficiency, and is often thankless.  

But I don't have to wait on my dreams of doing meaningful work with my life.

A quick duck into a phone booth, loosen the tie, and it's up, up, and away.  The phone booth is usually my cell phone or iPad, and the superhero outfit is usually a diaper, but you get the idea. 

I get a lot of joy out of my duality, and I'm grateful for it.  

#365Gratitude Day 294: Caspar Babypants

I swear I'm not making that name up. Caspar is a children's musician, and he's totally wonderful and ridiculous. 

My little girl Kate told me about him just this morning.  I've been listening to his album HOT DOG on Spotify all morning. 

I'm grateful Kate told me about him!

#365Gratitude Day 293: 道 Provides

Yesterday I got up late, had trouble with my phone, and wound up missing my train, and driving into work.  

I often say that 道 provides (that's the chinese character for Tao).  It brings you just what you need, just when you need it.  Even if that thing seems like it kinda sucks at the time.

Case in point - driving into work was fairly uneventful and easy, but the trip home, due to rain and traffic was much longer.  Along the way though I was able to make, and get, phone calls from several people.  I got to talk to my good friend Molière, and help plan details for the Little Express train ride we're putting together next month, talk to my friend Maya, who's one of the dearest people in my life, talk to my friend Enfant, who's an age player friend of mine I've know for ages, but don't get to talk to nearly as often as I'd like, and then out of the blue to reconnect with another friend who I hadn't heard from in ages, and who I thought had broken ties with me utterly.  

This turned out not to be so.  

I wouldn't have had the time to talk to any of these lovely people without being stuck in my car for a slow drive home.  I'm grateful that things work out exactly the way they're supposed to.

#365Gratitude Day 292: Sunshine

This has been a good day for me, schedule wise. I got up, got ready, made & packed my lunch, had breakfast, took the trash out, and got on my way to work early enough to catch an early train. 

​I ate lunch at my desk, while I was working.  After a mid-day meeting I treated myself to a sunshine break. 

What's that? It's 30 minutes to sit outside under a beautiful sky and do exactly nothing.  

It's a glorious luxury.  Sometimes the simplest things in life are the best.  I'm grateful for the time, the sunshine, and the ability to enjoy it thoroughly.