i friggen almost lost it all
I opened up my computer to start playing music before my class Sunday morning (the 8:30am in Boulder – aka, “church”). Usually, Inigo (my iBook) boots right up. This time, he screamed like a two-year-old throwing a tantrum.
It was haunting, like when you hear peacocks crying or ostriches in mating season (I had some strange neighbors out in the country growing up). The kind of sound you’re not sure is indicative of impending doom or just your imagination running rampant. But one thing was for sure – my computer was definitively NOT working.
So I did what any normal person would do; kept trying to turn it on again and again, holding my breath and hoping that the wailing would stop.
“Well, when was the last time you backed-up all your files?” Shannon asked me.
“Erm… when did I get this? May? Hm…” I paused. “Yeah, I haven’t ever backed anything up.” I began taking a mental inventory of everything: all the documents, all the programs, all the pictures and all the music that I may lose. Surprisingly, I found myself not too terribly worried. There was nothing I couldn’t live without, when it came down to it. But I was still crossing my fingers. Life would be so much easier if I didn’t have to start from scratch…
I received my computer back this afternoon with good news – all of my documents were still in tact!! I counted my blessings, my files, and my iTunes music library, thankful to have it all.
Until I realized there was an entire file of half-written blogs I could have potentially lost. Barely started ideas, abandoned for lack of inspiration, lack of interest, or lack of time. Those were all stories I may never even remember I started to share if they had ended up being wiped off of the hard drive. To lose all those before I even had an opportunity to complete would have been frustrating, disheartening and discouraging. I would have blamed myself for never having taken the time to sit down and finish a thought.
Why not take advantage of the time you have? With your thoughts, your words, your body, your art… In a yoga class, you can move through haphazardly, spending not enough time experiencing the sensations underneath your own skin. But what happens when one day you wake up and you’re injured? You’re sick? Or you’re 95 years old? Don’t take what you have for granted – experience it fully or else one day, you may regret having never fully appreciated what you had.
That’s not to say you should push yourself through a yoga practice, forcing yourself into poses for the sake of experiencing them. You honor your body, and on the days when you are tired and can’t make it full throttle through an entire yoga class, it’s like backing up your files – you make a conscious decision to save your energy, protect all your hard work, and promise to step back into it when you’re ready.
Sometimes the best of ideas have to be set aside for the sake of career, family and other such responsibilities. But don’t miss out on your creativity because you don’t think it’s worth it to spend a little time humoring your muse. Tell someone you care about exactly how much you love them BEFORE you miss out on the opportunity. Take a deep breath to smell the blooming tree blossoms before it’s suddenly winter again.
Don’t miss out.
Lucky for you, I never run short of stories to tell.