Breaking Habits and Embracing Traditions

I recently went on a road trip to Colorado.  It had been years since I last drove across the state of Nebraska into Eastern Colorado.  A week later, I made the return trip home.  First, let me say that I don't anticipate driving that distance again (at least not both ways) next year.  Second, let me recommend listening to an audio-book, as it helps time pass more quickly.  What I really want to talk about, however, is the return trip home.


Over the past few months, I have been working at breaking life-long habits that do not support my current ideal of being healthy and taking care of myself.  My progress has ebbed and flowed, which has not been my favorite, but it has allowed me to continuously grow and demonstrate the desire to grow.   Habits can be both good and bad, but I associate habits with not having to think.  So I have been trying to break both good and bad habits because I want to think.  I want to be present and engaged in my life.  I want to make decisions.


With that being said, the past few months have been challenging for me.  There has been a lot of "hurry up and wait" moments.  There have been a large amount of decisions made by other people over the past few months directly impacted my life.  Planning for an unknown future can make it hard to live in the present.  (And I struggled - I'm not going to lie.  I felt that I had to choose how to take care of myself, and I chose to focus on my mental and emotional health.  I feel like I am now able to take care of myself more wholly, which is definitely a good thing.)  It is most definitely difficult to be consistently present when you are looking ahead.  


So being present, breaking habits, and taking care of myself has been on my brain.  The car ride home provided me with an intriguing contrast to being present...My brother and I were well-versed in road-trip "parent-isms".  Periodically, one of us would throw out a comment that would make both of us chuckle and remember our parents fondly.  (My favorite, by the way, is when we cross back into Nebraska saying, "Ah, the good life."  I smiled just typing that!)  


Our family is big on tradition.  (Because we're Presbyterian?  Irish?  Not quite sure why...)  If there is a way that we can repeat an awesome moment of a celebration, we will.  We like to remember.  We like to connect and celebrate.  But in my quest to be present by breaking habits, I had to question whether it was good for me to celebrate traditions of the past. 


My internal debate was quite short:  I am choosing to embrace traditions.  For me, traditions do not represent living in the past, but instead remembering.  Traditions provide me with the opportunity to think and choose whether to continue to celebrate occasions.  The key for me is that when I take part in a tradition - whether singing the Rock Chalk chant or hanging stockings by the fireplace - I make a choice.  I recognize the opportunity to do these mindlessly, but I rarely do.  I love remembering the past and connecting it to where I am now.  I look for opportunities to embrace traditions in my current - or new - settings and personalize them.  I love to share traditions, so others can grow with me.


I am quite sure that some traditions could fade into habits.  The good thing about this is that I'm breaking habits.  

Contemplating WANT vs. NEED

To say that the past couple weeks have been thought-provoking would be an understatement of the grandest kind.  I have had more than one discussion about how to figure out what you want to do in life, once you get past all the things you "need" to do...


This blog by Jon Acuff was ridiculously compelling:  Play to the size of your heart, not to the size of the crowd.  That observation was the catalyst for two weeks of discussing the same topic in bible study (which we don't often do).  Two weeks of analyzing my thoughts and actions to see if my heart is the same no matter at what location I have "checked in."  Two weeks of figuring out what my basic needs are and how they are being met.  Two weeks of trying to determine what I want to do next...


So when you get to the point where you are able to meet your basic needs - food, shelter, clothing, etc. - what do you do?  How do you figure out what you're supposed to do next?  Who do you listen to?  The questions become like an avalanche - quickly gaining momentum and building into a potentially destructive force.


The opposite of the desire of my heart.  


And therein lies my answer.  Stop the questions from flowing so freely.  Stop searching continuously for answers from other resources, other people.  Stop.  Slow down.  Rest.  


At the point that I realized my thoughts -  which were supposed to be guiding me down a path of fulfillment and destiny (I can't decide if those last three words should be read with a sarcastic voice or a deep, masculine voice-over voice...) - were becoming self-destructive, I made a conscious choice to stop thinking about what I want to do.  I don't know if everyone's brain is hard-wired to take an idea and let it spin out of control, or if I'm just special that way...but the results can be overwhelming, making it so much easier to stop making choices, to stop acting...just to stop the thinking.  (Which, by the way, makes me think of Mandy Moore's character in Because I Said So as she was breaking up with the guy from That Thing You Do: "And who wants someone who doesn't think?"  However, in my mind, this becomes...Who wants to be someone who doesn't think?  Right now, I want to be that person because for me, thinking can be dangerous and develop a life of its own.)


And once you stop making choices, the thoughts have won, and life has become devoid of purpose.  I have lived in this state (lack of purpose) at various times in my life.  One of my friends described it this way:  I keep living and planning for the next thing to get done.  Race done - check.  Now onto the next thing.  While moving from task or action to the next is not always a bad thing, if we're constantly waiting for the next "thing" to take place, are we ever really living? Are we missing out on what is going on around us?  Are we missing great opportunities to be present and experience life?


So I am slowing down and working on making choices to be present.  I'm making choices to change things I don't like and to embrace those things I do.  I am engaging in my life, rather than passively participating.  And I am trying to be aware - of my surroundings, of those around me, and of what each moment is asking from me.  Even to my ears, it sounds a little too poetic, too "out there."  However, I have no problem being described as poetry in motion (a phrase attributed to some of the best athletes in the world), even if it's not a physical description.


I watched a TED Talk today (one of my favorite discoveries of this past year) by Jacqueline Novogratz about living a life of immersion, becoming agents of change, not charity.  She says at the beginning of the talk, "Your job is not to be perfect - it's to be human."  Like she suggests, I want to have the audacity to believe I deserve great things and the humility to acknowledge I can't do it alone.  


With that, I have discovered that, right now, what I want most is to rest in the arms of Christ and to let his embrace give me the power and love to be a human in pursuit of perfection, holding tight His grace of my imperfections.  I want to... Stop.  Rest.  Listen.  Love.  Be Present.

Vocabulary Lessons

There are certain words that automatically bring me back to high school English classes.  "Rumination" is one of them.  I literally remember having the discussion about a cow chewing his/her cud.  "Morass" is another, because what word can make a high school-er giggle than a word that contains a swear word and means swamp?  


As I sit down today, I have been processing certain specific words and their meaning in my life.  My words lately seem to revolve around being present and thoughtful.  I am constantly hearing and using the word choice...but never when I need to make a choice.  I like to contemplate being purposeful, intentional in my actions...when I'm not actually doing anything.


So how do words and thoughts become actions and happenings?  This is the dilemma that has been plaguing me for the past couple weeks.  Not only do I have high hopes of making change in my life, but I have high expectations as to when these should be accomplished.  


And then I do something.  Some would call it making a choice, but I am struggling with that label, as there is often no conscious thought backing it up.  Or rather I should say, there is no purposeful thought behind it...because I can feel myself thinking at the time.  And I can feel myself thinking during the action.  Afterwards, however, I look at that and ask myself why I never stopped or changed course or did something!  


I so want to be purposeful and present in everything I do, but I allow habits and mindlessness to rule my behavior.  I want to do more than talk about this and acknowledge this:  I want to change.  Do you hear me, self?  I want to change!  I need to change!  I desire the results, and I'm willing to put in the work, too.  But I need to know when to work and how to work. I need more than myself, and I don't know where that more comes from.  There are obvious answers to that - with the main one being God.  And I do believe that God helps us - please don't doubt me on this...but I also know God gives us free will...meaning choices...and we need to come to Him...meaning awareness.  This is my struggle:  Awareness of choice.  


Words have power.  Does action have greater power?