waiting for the other shoe to drop 🥾
Life is great. It really is. And yet sometimes it feels like there's something scary just around the corner.
I sometimes have this feeling like I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop. 🥾
It can be vulnerable when everything is going right. Particularly because the only constant in life is change. My parents are alive. My kids are alive. My marriage is strong. My business is growing. That might mean that most of my misfortune is ahead of me. 😨😓
What a depressing thought!!
You may be thinking: Paul STFU! It was a pleasant Thursday morning until you came around! 😡
Hear me out!
It may be depressing, but burying your head in the sand doesn't tend to work that well (unless you're an ostrich?).
One of my biggest fears is that I'll outlive my kids. And the chance of this will exist every day until it crystalizes one way or another (because one of us dies).
That means something very clear - getting comfortable dancing in the space with that fear is the only way I'm going to get to enjoy the time I have with them before one of us croaks (though hopefully it'll be me first).
Pema Chodron talks about how life exists on this precipice where we feel very vulnerable, and we have the choice to either lean into ourselves, or to lean away and let our hearts harden.
💙🧡
So maybe this morning, lean into one of the old stoic truths - MEMENTO MORI: remember that one day you too will die. 💀💀
If all of this makes you sad, know that that's okay and that's normal.
If all of this makes you really sad, it might be time to look at how you're spending your life.
A friend of mine said to me after his father got a bad health diagnosis: "Yeah, it's terrible. And it's sad. But he seems to be taking it well and, truthfully, it's sort of nice to not feel like the other shoe is going to drop. It's like, yeah it's terrible, but I can handle this."
His shoe dropped, and he could handle it. 🥾🥾
You know what? YOU'LL be able to handle it too.
So try to lean into the present moment while you have it. Don't let your heart harden. Lean into the vulnerability and just enjoy the f### out of the moments you have with those you love.
Much love,
Paul
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