Month: May 2014

Sweat

They say men sweat. Women wilt. No. Horses and men sweat. Women glisten. Whatever. I think we all sweat these days. We sweat the small stuff. We sweat the economy. We sweat aging. We sweat education. We sweat the big things. We sweat the sweat.

I visit this subject because two people at my gym had a conversation about the opposite. They were discussing the virtues of “chilling.” One was setting the scene of sitting on the sofa, eating ice cream. That was it. That was all. Just sitting. Eating ice cream. Chilling.

The other was talking about getting into the “zone” of complete relaxation. She said it was hard to get “there.” The “there” is down into the nothing space. It’s where we are our true selves. It’s the ultimate of example of chilling. And it is hard to attain.

I usually don’t eavesdrop, but the point was that the these two people, who were only waiting for the yoga class to start, were discussing the necessity of being in a place that people these days have trouble identifying, much less actually spending time in.

Here’s to sweat of the exercise sort, because that is GOOD sweat. And here’s to starting a trend for “chilling,” however you get there. How do you chill?

 

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Success Is About Showing Up

 

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Woody Allen said, “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” Showing up is one of those things that results from “should” winning the argument against “shallow.” Shallow says, “I’m so tired. I worked so hard this week. I need to stay home and rest up for the next week. I deserve a break. If I don’t go, I can stay wrapped around this book, bowl of popcorn, martini, television program, etc.” Showing up is about digging down into the hard dirt, and doing what you should do.

Here’s an example. A friend of our son’s is a pianist. The pianist has a younger brother who is an actor/singer. My husband and I attended both boys’ performances. Each event turned out to be hugely entertaining and beat out sitting in front of The Tube a thousand to one. But the best part of both evenings came when the boys saw that we had come. It’s not that we are fast friends. We are just parental units whom they know through our sons. But it made us all feel good. Enough other people showed up so that together, seated around stages in darkened rooms, we became audiences. Audiences make it worthwhile. Audiences witness. We want witnesses. Continue reading “Success Is About Showing Up”

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