A few years ago many parts of my life started to move around more than they ever had before and many of my friends, some close and some acquaintances, exclaimed how busy I was. They would frequently say, "When do you think it will slow down?" or "Wow, you are crazy busy." At first I wasn't sure what to say and would hedge things like, "I'm not sure" or "maybe this summer" or "we should do happy hour and catch up when I'm back in town"...when in reality, it never has slowed down or stayed in one place. It's my new normal. My life continues to experience constant change. Every day. And I enjoy it. Actually, I embrace it. I have found that it's truly the only way to enjoy life and appreciate every opportunity this world has for us to take. I have been surrounded for much of my life by many people who worry or complain about more things out of their control than in their control. Or only about the things out of their control, and never about things they can control. Wasting countless time and energy when they could have been focusing on other things. Even though I may have work travel scheduled or social events on the calendar, I really don't know how it will all pan out. And instead of worrying about things that may never happen or getting anxious at the onset of something unplanned, I pause and get curious. A friend, trusted colleague and dedicated coach shared with me the following clip from Meg Wheatley that inspired this post and many other thoughts that spend their days swimming about my brain. "I want to tell you a story I heard on NPR, must have been last fall when there were so many terrible hurricanes. There was a geologist being interviewed. He was a beach geologist, so his field of study was beaches and sand and the like. And at the time he was being interviewed, there was a storm. One of the large hurricanes was pounding the outer bank off the Carolinas. And he was being interviewed about what hurricanes do to beaches. Now, we all know what hurricanes do to beaches and beach houses and such. We feel they're very destructive, right? They destroy homes and take down power lines and take away even sand, and whole beaches disappear in a hurricane. So this interviewer was talking to this beach geologists about this hurricane going on. And then this is what got my attention. The geologists said, "You know I can't wait to get out on those beaches again once these storms have passed. And I hope to get out there in the next 24 hours." And the interviewer said, "What do you expect to find out there?" and I was listening, and I thought he was going to talk about all the destruction he was going to find. What he said really surprised me. He said, "I expect to find a new beach." Now wouldn't it be wonderful if we could be in the same relationship with life as that beach geologist, where we would look for newness rather than predictability, where we would look to see what just happened rather than agonize that what we wanted didn't happen? How do you navigate towards something when you don't know what that something is?" Instead of worrying about things that may never happen or getting anxious at the onset of something unplanned, I pause and get curious and find that there are many more things to laugh and smile about that there ever have been before. I'm not immune to the fact that life may still throw me hardships. And that I may experience emotion like I never have before. I may just respond differently than people assume. Because it's what works for me. You may not have all the answers. And you may never find them. But you can always expect to find a new beach.
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