My entire life fell perfectly into place today.
It all started on the cross trainer at the gym, after a really fun adventure to southern Maryland. I was watching a life coach on TV, and he was saying that it’s important to have a routine to live a balanced life. He also said that you should plan microadventures so that you continually step into the unknown and grow. Not everyone can go to Tibet for a week, but everyone can find thirty minutes to try something new.
I decided that after the gym, I’d run down to the lake near the WWII memorial to sit with nature for a bit. The weather was beautiful and I found a quiet spot on a small island on the lake (that you can get to by a foot bridge). I almost tripped over a mother duck and her eight babies. They were sunning themselves and I sat with them. They didn’t seem to mind my presence, so we hung out together for a while. The clumsy babies were so adorable; it was fun watching them experience one of their first days of life. Everything was new to them.
I walked around the lake for a bit and discovered yet another duck family paddling along in the water. The babies saw right over to me to investigate. They were maybe three inches long. I fell in love.
Over the weekend, I found out that my good friend from freshman year of college, Magie, now lives in DC. We connected on the phone on Saturday. Today, after a few bizarre coincidences, I decided to invite her to a yoga place that I’ve always wanted to try near Whole Foods. We’re going to go sometime this week.
I also signed up for a meditation class tomorrow night, since it’s an area that I’d like to grow in my life. I am stepping into the unknown, and am making a new commitment to experience more microadventures in my life.
How does the Whittier quote go? Something like:
For all the sad words of tongue or pen
The saddest are these: “It might have been.”
Regret is something in which I won’t participate. I don’t want to miss the opportunities that life is unfolding in front of me. I want to experience them all by taking the risks and jumping in head first. If things don’t work out the way I planned, then I will learn. There aren’t mistakes. There are only outcomes. You can judge an outcome as wrong or as a mistake, but that is a judgement.
It’s the same reason why I won’t talk Lisa’s roommate out of having her boyfriend move in with her from across the country. Lisa reminded me that Nick and I that, and that it was a mistake because things didn’t work out. I told Lisa it wasn’t a mistake, but that we produced a result. It is better to jump in and experience life than to stand on the sidelines fearing that something might go wrong.
It’s how we learn and it’s how we grow. It’s how we live life.
