Many of you who read this blog already know that I had a thrill of a lifetime this week, throwing out the first pitch at a Milwaukee Brewers game. This was one of 5 things currently on my bucket list and it was so awesome!
I had family come in from Iowa to experience it with me
My husband and one of my daughters were able to be on the field,
And a bunch of good friends were there as well. It was an amazing experience and I will remember it for the rest of my life.
I have had a number of folks ask me if I was nervous about doing this. Was I concerned that I might throw the ball into the dugout instead of somewhere in the vicinity of the catcher? Yes, yes I was. Did I worry that I might look like some crazy middle aged woman jumping around on the pitcher’s mound. You bet (and I think I did)! Was my Brewers jersey just a wee bit too tight around the middle? Absolutely! But I decided weeks earlier that I was going to wholeheartedly embrace this opportunity to do something I dreamed of, and delight fully in the experience. This was not only a gift I was giving myself, but also to my good friends who made this possible for me.
The way in which we orient ourselves to each day we are privileged to be alive, either opens up the possibility for joy or limits it. I try not to despair, as I look back at the hours and days and months that I spent concerned about how others might perceive me if I behaved a certain way, said yes to something unusual, or shared my true thoughts. But perhaps that is all part of the process of coming to know and accept yourself as you. One of the many advantages of getting older is that you have probably found your tribe – those who you are connected to with your heart, who will love you even if you do something dumb -and, you have a lot less energy and interest in trying to show up as someone you aren’t.
I listened to an amazing interview this morning. Here is the link www.onbeing.org/program/maria-popova-cartographer-of-meaning-in-a-digital-age/7580 Krista Tippet interviews Maria Popova, who writes Brain Pickings, which is an awesome weekly digest of intellectually interesting and thoughtful information. You would be doing yourself a big favor by signing up to have this come to your inbox on a regular basis. In today’s podcast, Maria is asked how she measures her success. She shares the following from Thoreau –
“…if the day and night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers, it’s more elastic and more starry and more immortal, that is your success. And for me, that’s pretty much it — waking up and being excited and curiously restless to face the day ahead, and being very present with that day, and then going to bed feeling like it actually happened, that the day was lived. I mean, there’s nothing more than that, really.”
BOOM!
