Impermanence

“Celebrate with me!” I say as I come up the stairs with two champagne flutes and a bottle of Cava from the basement refrigerator. It’s spontaneous and I don’t care.  We’re not doing anything special, planting a vegetable and herb garden, watching poppies flower from their buds. We forget sometimes how much there is to celebrate in the course of an ordinary day. We spend our lives wishing for extraordinary, attempting to keep up with the highlight reels our friends and strangers we admire post on social media.

Scrolling through LinkedIn posts this evening, I came across a woman sharing her disappointments, her failed sales calls in the past work week, deliberately debunking our redacted stories in the name of humility and truth. It’s refreshing and something we need more of.

We spend time trying to stay in front of trials and tribulations.  Our expectation is that life should be pain-free and we’re doing something wrong if we’re presented with hardship. We think we should agree with each other all the time, we high-five when we’re on the same page.

I say it’s easy to be on the same page.  Too easy.  If we’re on the same page all the time than maybe we’re surrounding ourselves with people who are too much like we are, people who can’t offer an opposing point of view and therefore shelter us from bigger ideas, prevent us from growing.

 

Aren’t we better off being challenged with an opposing view, and instead of trying to debate or litigate our positions, putting our energy into managing conflict, in finding compromise?  It’s not always going to be pretty, we’re not going to be proud of our outbursts or what we look like when frustration boils over, but we’re human and real and taking the first step toward seeking understanding.

And this is what I want to celebrate today.  I’m here on this earth for another day with a partner who never stops working toward understanding. I’m his flower; he’s my gardener.  That’s the mission of his soul.  I’m so fortunate.