Sunday, August 4, 2013

Friday Inspiration

This morning on my hour-long commute into work, I had an unusual feeling:  Inspiration.  It came as the sunshine of the longest day of the year streamed through my windshield, slowly warming away the goosebumps on my bare arms.  I sipped on my new Friday morning “treat” (a decaf, iced mocha with skim milk and no whip…I’m pregnant, not high maintenance, right?) and listened to my favorite radio hosts babble on about the latest movie premiere, “The Bling Ring.”  It was then that a somewhat shocking thought came into my brain.  These bratty, entitled, self-absorbed morons obviously have some serious issues and are probably everything that is wrong with our society.  What they did was entirely wrong, a terrible example for youth, and they deserve to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law… not just slapped on the wrist because their mommies and daddies can afford high-powered attorneys with fantastic connections.

That was not the shocking part.  The shocking part was that a little voice in the back of my head was whispering, “At least they did something.”  Sure it was something stupid, selfish, and illegal, but still it was something.  They acted.  They were bold.  They make great movie characters because they took a risk.  Instead of sitting on Facebook whining about their entry-level jobs, or the economy, or increasing the dent in their sofa cushions, they went out and lived their lives.

 So with that in mind, I pose this question.  What are you doing?  I’m sure you’re going to work, raising a family, building relationships, paying bills, maybe slogging along on the treadmill for a few minutes each week, but really, what are you doing?  When was the last time that you did something that gave you butterflies in your stomach?  When was the last time that you felt exhilarated?  When was the last time you did something worth talking about? 

 I don’t know what it is that makes us all feel like we’re caught in a vortex of convenience and conformity, but I’m as guilty as everyone else.  I get trapped in my daily routine and those little risks, the tiny leaps of faith toward goals that I want to achieve, seem more and more impossible every day.  Writing a paragraph is akin to scaling a building Spiderman style.  Picking up my NASM Personal Training text book is like asking me to run a mile on my hands.  I work hard, try to go to the gym, come home, eat dinner, and watch The Bachelorette.  Is that bad?  No.  Is it boring, predictable, and a waste?  You betcha.

 I don’t know how you take the first step.  I guess you just do it.  You turn off your brain.  You leap instead of looking.  My fear is that it only gets harder as more things get added to your list… babies, diapers, midnight feedings, carpool, tee ball, dance class, playdates, PTA, parent teacher conferences, colonoscopies, dry cleaning pick up, oil changes, jury duty, etc.  We have to pay bills.  We have to feed our children.  We have to sleep at some point.

Still, there’s something about the Summer… the extra daylight, the warm heat radiating off of the sidewalk, that makes me feel like there’s more energy in the world to be harnessed.  More possibility.  More time.  I honestly don’t know what I should be doing.  Maybe that’s 95% of the battle.  You hear about all of these successful people and it all started with an idea they were passionate about.  A nagging voice they couldn’t ignore.  My nagging voice tells me to eat chocolate.  My nagging voice tells me that I have something to contribute, I just don’t know what it is yet.