I don’t know if you guys have seen this clip before, but if you haven’t - check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r1CZTLk-Gk
I decided today that I should watch this about once a week just to keep things in perspective. How many times do I sit at my computer and get completely unnecessarily angry because a website takes “too long” to load? Just this morning I found myself seriously frustrated because the formatting on some lab reports I had written hasn’t been working. Formatting. Really, Nicole? That’s what’s gonna get you fired up? How many thousands of injustices are there happening in the world right now? And with all that going on I’m just gonna sit here in my warm house after having eaten a warm filling breakfast and get pissed off about formatting. On my macbook, nonetheless. Ugh.
This is why I think simplicity is so important. I am constantly (obviously with the exception of this morning...oh wait...and lots of other times) trying to focus on appreciating the little things in life, and keeping things in my life little.
I’m really into Mumford and Sons right now, and they have a song called Awake My Soul that is great. One line in particular says:
“In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die.
Where you invest your love, there you invest your life.”
I like the perspective that lines gives. First of all, we are all just here, chillin in our bodies - living and then dying. That’s pretty much what it comes down to. And in between that - we love, and we live. I have been reflecting recently, after a conversation with my friend Megan, about just how important love is. How is it so easy for me to forget this? To get caught up in life: studying, chemistry, joining a lab group, figuring out life in a new city, on a new side of the country, missing old friends, working too hard, not resting enough, stressing about things that are not worth the brain cells, finding something or another to complain about instead of just being CONTENT with where I am and focusing on LOVING those around me.
Again and again I find myself coming back to this. I want to invest my life: time, energy, emotions, into loving people instead of into getting upset about formatting. Though formatting is annoying, as it is when the T is late, or planes are delayed, or something we’ve come to depend on just isn’t working for us, I’m gonna keep working on making my life not about ME and what is or isn’t convenient for me, but about OTHERS. About how a smile can make their day a little brighter, or a hug might be just what someone needs if I slow down for a second to notice.
Peace, love, and grace to you friends.
