Sunday Morning Reflections – Life’s a Roller Coaster Ride

I woke up this morning having no idea what I was going to write about, and then it hit me – that’s simply the way my week went. It’s time to do a recap about what a roller coaster life is.  I always hope I’m writing about something to bring a little clarity into your lives, as well as my own. That’s right, I admit it, I don’t always write for you, but my own sanity on a quiet Sunday morning.

This week was a roller coaster ride – no gigantic highs and lows, but not on a completely even keel either, Since I’m work in progress, just like you, here’s what I learned.

Low points -Sometimes you just have to go with them. Several times I found myself missing my folks. Nothing, in particular, just emptiness. I know they’re in a better place. I know they’re together, but that doesn’t change wanting just to pick up the phone and call Dad. We’d be watching TV, and I’d tear up over something. Sheila would catch it, hold my hand and just like a cloudy day it would simply pass. A few minutes later the “sun” was back out.

High points – I woke up Thursday morning with an idea to launch a new feature on SCU and have been blown away by the response. It’s called “Why?” and the first episode was with John Sexton. I had no idea how good the response would be, especially from the artist’s side. The work I want to put into “Why?” completely over-shadowed other things I needed to get done. It’s now become a daily “lifeboat” drill of trying to prioritize all the normal components of my workday.

Partners with SCU who can’t make up their mind – You have clients who take forever to approve their album, and I have clients who can’t make up their mind on how they’d like to work with me. With this client, it’s been going on for eighteen months and finally I’ve recognized I just need to walk away and stop wasting time. 

Extended reach – At ShutterFest I had a third program to do, but it was canceled due to a problem with the location in the hotel. I made a promise to everybody to do the make-up class online last Wednesday night. We had sixty people in attendance throughout the evening, and it went well. But, here I go again loading up my schedule and have just launched a twice a month thirty-minute program online for the ShutterFest crew on marketing. Almost two hundred people have hit the “like” button on the concept. It’s a high because of the response, a low because I just added another project into the pipeline. 

And then comes a little time to procrastinate – I’ve got deadlines on several different projects, and I keep putting them off. Now I’m down to the wire and rushing to get them done. Even writing this post this morning is a way to put off what I really should be working on.

So, here’s my point and I’ll admit it’s hardly one of my more profound moments – We all have days when we just need to go with the flow. You can’t even out the roller coaster ride and even if you could, the result would be as boring as a kiddie ride in an amusement park.  The challenge in life is appreciating the importance of change and just going with it.

“Without change there would be no butterfllies!’
Unknown

“If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.”
Gail Sheehy

Wishing you all a day filled with more butterflies than caterpillars. Personally, I’m looking forward to finishing one particular project and then just kicking back and hanging out with Sheila. Those eleven-second hugs are going to be critical and so important as I prepare to buckle up for another wild ride in the week ahead. 

If you’re tuning in late, there was an article in AARP Magazine last year. Yes, I admit I’m old enough to have my own subscription! The article talked about hugs that are at least eleven-seconds long are therapeutic. If you don’t believe me, try it with somebody you care about – they really are better.

Thanks for hanging out with me this morning.  I sure do appreciate you guys.