After a long, long day, before eating my dinner, I sat quietly sipping a little grape juice, allowing my head and my heart a little much needed space to decompress and flush after pouring out my best for 12 hours.
As I sat unwinding at my little table I looked at all the stuff that came out of my pockets and bags moments before that filled up much of the table. It wasn’t the receipts, the money, the business cards that caught my eye…. it was two boxes and a letter that captured my attention.
One of the boxes was from my mom, who since Christmas, has been on a tear sending me delicious food (which is really love with work put in) from Massachusetts to California. I thought about the hours of labor and how despite a tiny kitchen and tender back she continues to express her love for me and how I lucky I am that to still have this in my life.
There was a box from Maui Jim sun glasses, a sponsor of Team Monumental for the last 15 years. The gear and glasses they share and their willingness to partner and support our mission to encourage, educate and inspire, made me feel fortunate and reminded of my mission and how even after long days it still feels like a complete privilege to be allowed into the lives of my students and guide and support them and listen to their stories and watch them improve their lives.
The third thing was a hand written letter from a close friend. Close friends and hand written notes are both precious things and not to be taken for granted. The letter sat on the table, oozing with kindness reminding as I decompressed that building long term, meaning relationships is absolutely the most important and best part of life. The letter also reminded me of the responsibility we have to our friends and just how important it is that we reach out and tell those that matter most to us what a difference they make in our lives.
I sat for a bit in the dimly lit room before fixing a meal, thinking about how I lucky I was that I had family, friends and a vocation that are filled with meaning, value and love.
The reminders are all around us if we can sit still long enough, be present, open our eyes and take em in. And we need to because otherwise it can be very easy to overlook our family, work, friends, and start seeing our days as just a set tasks and continuous activity as opposed to what our days really are, which are bountiful opportunities to connect with people and contribute to the well being of our tribe.
Take a look around you, I bet you’ll see some things that are really precious to you that perhaps you see right through day in and day out as you do your thing.
Today we take notice and we let the goodness that we’ve built fill us up. Today we remember that the tasks support the goodness and the tasks are a means to the goodness, the tasks are not the most important stuff.
Train smart, have fun and never give up,
CD
