#365Gratitude Day 181: Growth Opportunities

I've been a member of the Track Your Happiness Project​ for several years now.  That's important, I'll get back to it shortly. 

Today, I was having a conversation with Maya about the nature of our relationship, over my lunch hour.  Maya has been my very good friend for more than a decade, and my more-than-a-friend for several years now. 

​It's hard to define what we are to one another. We don't have a good word for it, ourselves. She's always been there for me, and for Missy, too. She's helped me through some incredibly painful things, as I have for her. We love one another very much. 

Having a unique, Indefinable relationship isn't all rainbows and Jelly Babies though. Sometimes it's challenging. I had a bit of an epiphany over something I haven't been doing well for a while, and ​called her up, excited to open the hood of this thing, and maybe tinker with the spark plugs of it with her. 

We did. It was a great talk.​

During the talk, I got a text from the Happiness folks, and they asked me "To what extent are you growing as a person as a result of what you're doing right now?"

My answer: A LOT. 

The neat thing about these sorts of moments is that they help me grow holistically. I learn a little bit more about who and what I am, and how I relate to those I care about each time I have one of these "growth opportunities."

I'm pretty lucky. 

#365Gratitude Day 180: Finding time

So I'm on my new schedule for work. That means I have the time in the mornings to go running.  It's a big gift really.  I'm sitting on my front steps right now, resting after a 45 minute walk.

"Kids only. No grownups. TIME MACHINE." 

It's daunting to be getting started again, I'll admit that. But I feel so fortunate to be able to do so. I saw something this morning that struck me funny as I was walking.

It was a box that some kids had been playing with. Their mom or dad threw it out, and it is now filled of garbage. But for a little while it was some kid's Time Machine. 

I'm glad I ran into it. In a way my morning workout is kind of like my own time machine. 

#365Gratitude Day 179: Falling in love with the Universe

Specifically I mean Steven Universe, the cartoon by Rebecca Sugar.

Steven is a young half-human boy.  He's part "Crystal Gem", a species of people from another world based on geological objects  He's sort of part super hero and part little kid.  He's funny, sweet, kind, moderately obnoxious in a charming way.  He makes up songs about things.  He loves people.

He reminds me so damn much of little mako, the other guy I carry around in my head.  I just binge watched 14 episodes of the darn thing, and am utterly and completely in love with it.  It's funny, wise, and a tiny bit transgressive.  It pokes fun at social norms.  Steven is something of an unwitting gender and culture outlaw.  He doesn't act the way he does to spite social norms - he's just sort of immune to them.

It's brilliant.  I'm glad it's around.

Check it out.  I bet you will fall in love with it too.

#365Gratitude Day 178: Words aren't necessary

#dailyThink: Certain limitations

Saw a really smart tweet this morning.

@AliceDreger said "One of my best profs said to me once: "If you haven't changed your mind lately, how do you know it is working?" That changed my mind."

That's got me thinking.  Certainty is a form of expectation, isn't it? Maybe it's a kind of "should"? I suppose that it's a tool of convenience at times.  "If I get in the shower, and the water's too hot, I should get burned."  But at other times, I can see where certainty is a big obstacle.  "Since I haven't gone running for a while, it should be really hard to get going again." or how about "If someone is of a certain political/religious/social/whatever stance, they should think the following..."

How hard is it really to go back to beginner's mind, to shoshin, and spot-check the things you're certain about? What do you lose or gain by doing so? 

I don't have any answers here, I'm just thinking out loud.