Week in Review: Just Breathe
Breathe
I began this week with a breath.
There has been a mantra I've taken to lately in life: breathe. I was working about a week ago on bringing together some ideas for Jerry Doyle, a strategic thought-partner/mentor and my Vice Provost over Student Access, Success, and Diversity Initiatives. We discussed the possibility of meeting on Sunday, which is traditionally my day off. He basically said "enjoy your day of peace, Gabe." and he closed his remarks with "Breathe."
I've always considered holding peace as a strong piece of my life. However, I inevitably get distracted from time to time and become caught up in a web of ideas, projects, and shiny objects of the imagination. It's in those times where I become more and more consumed with the idea that I need to create and deliver outputs, which builds a cycle of internal anxiety that ends up directing my attention in even more tangential directions. It is always only after I pause to breathe, feel, and come back to the present in peace that I am able to proceed with clarity and impact. Otherwise, my work is messy, my mind is disheveled, and my clothes don't get washed.
This summer has brought me into new levels of responsibility, creative autonomy, and passion-relevant opportunity for my emerging future. It began as a roller-coaster of sorts, juggling a series of physical moves, out of state trips, new projects, and my sanity. I've since leveled out considerably, coming to terms with the evolutionary nature of this journey that is life. So long as I press in, the ride is going to be full of color and speed and bumps and new delights--it's all part of the dance. My latest mantra, then, has been around peace and breath. Regardless of what life "throws at me," when I stay in the flow of peaceful grace and keep my head above water by focusing firstly on my breath in every moment, I navigate this journey just fine. From crystal "glass" water to choppy rapids, it's all the same to my soul if I approach life from the right place, a place where my heart is centered on eternal love and my breath is focused on feeling the deeper truths inherent in my existence.
A couple days ago, I was reflecting while laying on a roof in Chinatown, Chicago; I considered the work I am doing, at the intersection of design thinking and education. There are a host of verrrrrry cool things that will stem from my current projects, never a dull moment in the future I'm stepping in to. My day-to-day is increasingly becoming more and more relevant to my passions in life. Even so, I lied up there, staring into the night sky, and wondering to what end my work was aimed. I still have disturbances in life. Not that I expect perfect peace to be the norm right here and now... such a goal fruits from a long journey... But there is soooo much room for more peace and love to be built into the very core of my perspective and approach to all things and people. Something so absurd that I approach each new engagement seeing the beauty inherent in all souls and things I encounter, and I immediately am able to feed that beauty with love. I want to cultivate that within myself so that everything else I do (the things I build, the relationships I form, the ideas I conceive) ALL grow from a soil pervasively rich in peace and love. The idea here... is that whatever comes out from my life will then have peace-love intimitely woven throughout its design.
THIS is the prayer of my week, my life. It's what I saw this week that I want to echo forward into eternity.
Here's to love.
