Find The Minutes...

 

Hi!

Nothin' like cruisin' around on a beautiful night to clear the mind. 

And let's face it, sometimes the mind needs some clearing. 

At times it can feel like the world is moving at warp speed, driving drunk, blindfolded, with a short-circuiting GPS. You can begin to feel like you're being pulled in more directions than even exist. 

Sometimes the speed brings big things, sometimes a bunch of medium things, sometimes a crap load of tiny things that alone would have zero effect, but combined, feels like trying to run the hundred-metre dash in a torrential hail storm. No matter how fast you move you're gonna get hit.

So.....

When life is throwing crap and you are catching like a goalie during a slapshot drill, catching most, but, I mean, you're not perfect, (I'm Candian, ok? The odd Hockey references are a given) you have to find the minutes.

I was going say that 'this time of year' is pretty hectic, but, really, any part, any season, any time of a year is going to be hectic for somebody. So, instead, I will say this. Whenever the pace of life has you feeling overwhelmed, remind yourself to find the minutes. The minutes where you can separate yourself from the chaos, step in out of the hail, and find perspective.

With life-changing events, perspective can feel impossible. The situation can be so big that no matter how far you step back, no matter how you change the angle, no matter how many deep breaths you take, any kind of silver lining refuses to exist. The crushing weight of it seems impossible to shift. If this is the case, you have to give yourself permission to share the load. Things this big are not meant to be carried alone. Especially if you are the one who is always the helper, the lifter, the one who lightens the loads of others, especially if this is you... lean in, and let go... they can take it. Those that care for you want you to. Find the minutes that let everything out, that allow moments of joy to distract, the minutes to bring down your shoulders, unclench your jaw and take a full breath. 

With medium things, the daily things that can pile up every now and then. When something throws a sometimes metaphorical, sometimes literal wrench into your routine. When these things happen in a bit of a cluster, find the minutes. Find minutes where you can look at the situation, apply humour, especially if it's a bit inappropriate, and decide that, although whatever it is is causing a royal pain in the ass, this too shall pass. What doesn't work out the way you want will make a good story to tell later. And, really, I have found that most of the time, when things don't work out the way I want, I discover later, sometimes much later, that the whole thing was a bit of a bullet-dodge. 

With the tiny things, the things that can happen when planning an event, entering a new chapter of life, getting ready for a special occasion. When tiny shards of chaos seem to line the path from here to there with broken legos, and you have bare feet that have never so much as touched a blade of grass. When each of these things on their own wouldn't make you blink, but collectively, make you rethink your entire life, find the minutes. Again, this too shall pass. The event, the occasion, the turn of the page, will happen, legos and all. Find the minutes to pour yourself a glass of whatever blows your skirt up, sip it slowly, or chug it, you do you, and learn to say screw it. At this point, you have a decision to make. You can let the legos win, and let them drive you insane, or you can just roll with it. Adapt where you can, and screw the rest. 

All you can do is all you can do. Find the minutes to cut yourself some slack, forgive yourself for not being perfect, forgive yourself for not always being able to be all things to all people, go cruisin' on a beautiful night, and for fuck sake... unclench your damn jaw. Excuse my French... or don't. It's all good. 

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