Wednesday, October 26, 2011

One-Liners, not One-Miles

posted by Melissa Baumgart
Well, would you look at that!  It's a quote taken from a silly you tube video, that I didn't even like at first.  In fact, I never watched it again.  But what I have done is repeat that phrase time and time again for comedic effect in my own life.  I have lots of things I share with those around me that we get from pop culture (or even real life culture), little one-liners that make us laugh til we snort.
9+hrs & $8.52/jar: You what that is?  That's Bullshit!

Here are some others you might be able to place:

"Rude!"
"What's up with that?"
"You know what that is?  That's Bullshit!"
"Girl, yes I did."
"Nothing at all, nothing at all, nothing at all."
"Calmer than you."


So, have a distracted you enough to perhaps think this month isn't about running?  Did you forget you came here to see how the running was going?  Seems like I have.  After we went running in the dark this past Saturday night, I haven't run at all.  I know, What's up with that?

I did start back to yoga though.  I feel like how when I was a kid and I would recite whole portions of a funny show, like the Simpsons, and now I am reduced to simple one-liners that other people might not even get.  In class, I can barely stand there the whole time, and I feel accomplished just by getting through pranayama breathing.  I think the people in class are glancing over to my mat thinking, "Wow, look at the new chubby girl, poor thing doesn't know what hit her."  Rude!  In the past I could go through the entire series day after day.

And that's how it goes.  Sometimes, we pick a winner.  It is inspiring and motivating, and maybe we even love it so much that we fall down in joyful exhaustion from it all (Urban Homesteading anyone?)
And sometimes we pick a dud.

You never know which choice is going to be a winner or a dud.  I sure wasn't looking forward to Memorizing a Classic Poem, when Amy picked that one.  But I loved it.  I totally got into poetry and memorizing.  And I thought I would love running every day, a small, but attainable goal.  Forget about it.  How is it that twice I have done a 30-day Challenge with Bikram yoga (1 hour and 30 minute class every day) and yet, I couldn't squeeze in 15 minutes a day.  As much as I preached we all could back at the beginning of the month!  

Just look at that!  Life brings so many possibilities and opportunities; we make of them what we will.  Therein lies the choice: do you choose to feel guilty about what you made of it, or do you move on peacefully, with a little more insight into yourself and humanity.  I do feel good about what I spent my energy working on for the past week or so.  I say focus on the positive, look at what you have done and say to the world, "Girl, yes I did!"

So, next time you feel like you've been doing nothing at all, choose your perspective wisely.  Look at what you have done.  Even if it is simply resting, cultivating your inner self, wading through your own darkness.  Even if it is going for it, head-on, with reckless abandon through light and inspiration.

Are there no true duds?  Is there always a silver lining?  Are we always in control of our perspective?  Sometimes that doesn't even seem possible.

As maddening as it all seems sometimes, I believe we can always look to someone else choosing to be in some crazy state of mind and say... "Calmer than you, dude."  And walk away.

-Melissa

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