Lights, Camera…Quiet

“Just because everything is different doesn’t mean anything has changed.” – widely used quote (¿Irene Peter?)

Last week, I wrote about action. Doing. If doing was an Olympic sport, I’d be a five-time Gold Medalist. This week, I want to talk about stillness. Being. If being was an Olympic sport, I wouldn’t even qualify to watch it on TV. Until recently. Maybe.

They are completely opposite concepts, but both vitally important to life and my personal journey.

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I traded North Carolina for Mississippi.

I traded Charlotte for New Orleans.

I traded skyscrapers for dolphins.

I traded banking for golf.

I traded Gucci loafers for FootJoy spikes.

I traded the Hornets for the Pelicans.

I traded the Panthers for the…wait, no I didn’t.

I traded eastern NC vinegar BBQ for shrimp po’ boys.

I traded lots more. Everything is different. Everything.

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But the real change came in learning how to be. Learning how to sit alone, in stillness and in silence, with no outside human, commercial, or material influence. I can’t imagine a better way to find what I really want in life, especially as an already influenced adult. I did have to be able to handle The Truth. Not the truth in relation to anyone else. My Truth.

Sounds lonely? No chance. Sounds boring? Absolutely not. Almost four years on, I try to do it 1-5 times every single day. It usually involves sunrise, sunset, animals, nature, reading, and breathing. It’s really just yoga, a daily re-centering, in my own damn way.

How does just being help, you ask? It promotes calmness to explore self-expansion. It promotes clarity to explore life possibilities. It helps remove limits, most of which we self-impose.

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Doing + Being = abk. There’s a little simple math for you. What does that mean?

In traditional terms, I’ve accomplished absolutely nothing over the past four years. Gone backwards even. Miles backwards in some areas. But in the grand experience of life, I’ve lived four lifetimes, if not more.

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I really just made another trade. I traded traditional categories and definitions of success for life. For living. How is that measured, you ask? Don’t get me started…