#365Gratitude Day 308: A Space Oddity

I just heard about this, because I saw my wife post about it, and I'm utterly blown away.

You know Chris Hadfield, right?  He's the Canadian astronaut who back in 2013 lived aboard the International Space Station, and did a lot of tweeting from there.  I followed him for a long while, as I'm sure many of you have.  He's a marvelous human being.

He's also, as it turns out, a really great singer.  He recorded a version of the famous David Bowie song, A Space Oddity, from the International Space Station and posted it as a YouTube video.  It's brilliant.

See for yourself.

I'm grateful to live in a world with such a remarkable person in it.

#365Gratitude Day 307: Exception Handling

In Java there's this concept called exception handling.  It's a sort of preparation one makes in code to deal with potential problems.  You mark a particular method that it's got the potential to "throw" an exception, and then you "try" to do the thing that might cause the problem, and "catch" the error that gets thrown, and deal with it somehow.

Life has this too.

Yesterday, after grappling with a code problem for a few days, I asked for help from a co-worker.  They helped me out, and together we worked through the problems I'd been having.  After they'd left my desk, I implemented the solution, finding a few more slight problems along the way, and handily dealing with them.

It's a funny thing, when you write code for a living you tend to live in this weird binary way where you either feel like you're totally on top of things and kind of godlike, or you have no clue what the hell you are doing.  

So I got the particular feature I was building all tested, and checked it in, and was feeling really pretty good about myself.  I went to lunch.

When I came back, I went looking for something new to do, and couldn't find a single thing that looked like something I had the skills or drive to do.  I sort of floundered for an hour or three.  I had that nagging feeling of being overwhelmed by the unknown.  When your job relies on you confidently using your skills, that's pretty paralyzing.

 Then I realized I could use the downtime to self-teach myself a bunch of things, and dug into that.  I made the best effort I could at the time to acquire some new skills.

At the end of the day, I was still feeling sort of "spoonless", but took myself out for a nice dinner.(Because Missy was still driving home from a long day trip.)  By the time I got home, she was home, too.

As we went to bed, I realized that my I-don't-know-what-to-do-next feeling earlier that day was a form of exception, and that I'd properly handled it.  I went to bed feeling like my day had worked out for the best after all.

My gratitude for the day then is that we have that sort of exception handling I'm talking about built into us, organically.  Sure, things come up which knock us for a loop, but eventually, we're self-correcting.  That's a good thing.

#365Gratitude Day 306: My Express Love for Yoga Pops Up

Last night I had a Skype call with my fellow planners of the Littles Express, a christmas-holiday themed train ride event for age players.  

Let me add, you should totally get a ticket and join us - it's going to be wicked fun.

Anyhow, as we were waiting for one of our fellow Christmas Caper Collaborators™, somehow our silly banter turned to music.  That was when I introduced my friends to this unusual band I like, the Yoga Pop-Ups. 

The YPU's play instrumental music, covers of all sorts of popular (and other kinds of) music that's designed to be good to listen to while you do yoga.  As a sort of weird side-effect, the music winds up being like lullabies for age players.  

I often put on their sci-fi movie music album to go to sleep to.  I also love to write code and fiction to their other albums, especially their Rush tribute, which I particularly love.  They're amazing.

I played some of their music for my friends, who loved them.  I'm grateful I got to do that, as well as sharing it with you, now too.

#365Gratitude Day 305: Wu Wei for Breakfast

Wu wei is the Taoist concept of non-action.  It's moving in an organic, non-contrived, wholly mindful way, unencumbered by either positive or negative expectations.

In a very real way, all of that, and indeed all of Taoism can be summed up in one word:  

RELAX.

Wu wei is the simple, yet challenging work of fully doing what you must do, and NOT doing what you must not. 

I know, this sort of double speak makes your head hurt. Mine too, sometimes. 

Today, I experienced it around getting ready for work.

I slept in a little. Cuddling with Missy is so very nice. The bed was warm, my overnight diaper was wet, and Missy had naturally thrown her arms around me as we slept. All of that is a formula for wanting extra time to enjoy it.  But around six, I got up, knowing I had to get going if I wanted to make my 7:00am train. 

I blew that. There were two emails that I needed to send, that took a bit longer than I thought.  

(In a related, wholly unglamorous note, I sent those emails from my phone, from the bathroom, dictating them, as I got ready. This is the sort of juggling I do, to be able to live my superhero lifestyle.) 

No problem. I mindfully adapted. I packed my gym bag with a fresh towel, and shifted my workout to after work instead of before. 

As I got dressed my cats, Yin & Yang reminded me:

- They love me.

- They weren't about to let me leave the house without bringing my daily allotment of cat hair on my clothes.

- They really wanted their breakfast.  

I checked my watch. There were two more trains this morning. There was a distinct possibility that if I stopped to give the cats breakfast, never mind make some for myself, I'd miss the 7:45. Then I ALSO remembered it was trash day, and I needed to deal with that, too. 

Well, crap.  

I had visions of screwing up my whole day, whole timetable.

Then I remembered wu wei.  What did I have to do?  The cats needed their breakfast. I needed mine. The trash needed to go out. I needed to go to work, and work out after.

The exact order, manner, and timing of these things didn't matter at all. 

I relaxed. I got the cats their breakfast, and made myself a small nice one too.  

Then I took out the trash, got on my way, and made the 7:45 train with time to spare. 

Here's the funny thing about this. When I look, contemplatively back on the brief anxiety I felt, and then the joy and ease at the relief of moving past it, I see that, at the time, that brief anxiety was exactly what I needed to be doing, so that I could witness it, and transcend it.

Now, I'm on the train, and calm, centered, relaxed. I'm looking forward to my work day and approaching it from an engaged, yet relaxed, mindful state. 

I have no idea exactly what will be required of me today. But I'll do what needs to be done.  

I'm grateful for it. 

#365Gratitude Day 304: A call from a friend...

I got a phone call today.

OK, so technically, it wasn't a phone call.  It was a google hangout.

And technically, I didn't get it.  I made the call.

But it was after getting pinged by a friend who had an issue on their mind, and wanted my help.

Enough with the technicalities, okay?

Anyhow, here's the thing.  So this particular friend, they listen to the podcast, and we know one another pretty good, and they like me, and I like them.  What this particular friend's issue was is a private matter, so I'm not going to discuss that here.

We spent about an hour on the phone, after which they thanked me for my help, said they felt better, and we parted company.  Afterward, I felt really good about it.  I love helping people.

So, here's the thing.  I do a lot of stuff.  

In my day job I work in technology, doing a fairly complicated thing.  I'm always learning new stuff about that day job, and studying for it.  Then there's the podcast, which I produce (meaning chase guests), and co-host.  Plus, I'm working on a new book, and have already written two others.  I do life coaching, sometimes with 1 client, sometimes with multiple ones.  I'm also married, polyamorous, and kind of a yenta busybody who is always willing to lend an ear or an hour to a friend in need.

I stretch myself really thin.  Sometimes, it's a problem.  I'm often kinda exhausted.

But then there are days like today.  This particular friend had been looking for me for a few days, and we just hadn't managed to connect.  When we finally did, I listened very carefully.  Then I responded, employing some of the techniques I use in coaching, and adding in some zen stories, which is a thing I do a lot.  It felt good to genuinely help them.

But there's a hidden reward I got, too.  It's really nice to know that the stuff I do makes a positive difference in the world.  Don't get me wrong - I'm not seeking kudos, congratulations, or validation.  Heck, certainly not.  I go on and on, on the podcast, about how people don't need validation for the things they do, or the person they are.  I'm no exception to that rule.  I'd do all the many things I do even if no one anywhere ever had a good word to say about it.  My mandate comes from within.

But that doesn't mean it's not nice, not pleasurable, when I do get that external validation.  It sure feels good to be sought out for help, and then to be able to give that help.  

I'm grateful that I'm driven by purpose, and every so often, I can see it actually working.