Just told Lin I am up to my arse in alligators. Totally true. I was ‘flying low’ all day at school today. Zoooooom!!!!!!! Four new referral observations, two file searches, two computer scorings for tests, one report proofed and a partridge in a pear tree. I have a report to do for the courts through the private practice office but that can wait until I get home from hip hop. Once I get it started and break the inertia, I will be more willing to work on it tomorrow.
So, crazy busy. I do it to myself. I am totally to blame. I have scheduled something to do every evening this week. Life is full…and most of the time I like it! I like it! ?
Got a note from a reader in Massachusetts. Mary has been with us for awhile and she is doing great things up there. This is the reader who is helping to launch a senior center and a sight loss support group. Impressive!
Anyway, while Mary might not be as crazy as I am, she likes life to be full, too.
I was going to answer most if not all of her questions about my writing process in this page, but now I think I will answer only one. Where do I get my ideas? From my life. From what people say to me. From you, Mary.
How do you like that? You are an inspiration! ?
Mary saying she tries to keep her life full made me think about what constitutes a full life. Back to the web. Onward!
If you are a Christian, John 10:10 says Jesus came so we could each have a life that is “full and good”. So the concept of a full life is at least a couple of thousand years old. Not a new concept. Again, what constitutes a full life? I sort of doubt John meant being overbooked. He didn’t keep Jesus’s personal appearance calendar; did he? “You’re booked at the Mount. Standing room crowd only! You’re gonna knock them alive!”
Ouch! Sorry. Fertile and irreverent imagination here.
There was a 75 year, longitudinal study completed at Harvard on what makes a full life. They found being fully booked had little to do with it. What gave life that full flavor was relationships. Also contributing was being content in your work. Joy was defined as connectedness. Being connected to your people, your work, your environment. Be involved and life will be fulfilling.
Creative expression helps to create a full life. Create.
The last thing the Harvard study identified as needed for a fulfilling life was something I talked about a few weeks ago: challenge. The way we grow is learning how to cope with challenge. The study author, Vaillant, calls it “the capacity to make gold out of shit”. The study also seemed to suggest that those who got get. Having good coping skills help us to have better relationships.
Which brought the study full circle and ends this page. Full lives matter. Keep building yours.
written October 2nd, 2017