Look and You Will Find






Anchoring with today's word:

LOOK

This morning I got up with an agenda. First real agenda in three days since I lost my job.
  1. Get a run in.
  2. Blog
  3. Help Colt get some pressure washing done for a neighbor.
  4. Go to HEB grocery store for three families.
The run was scrubbed as Steve and I got caught up on some business needs and spent an hour gathering information. So scurry to go help Colt get the pressure washer started. Old gas. Lots of pulls. Flooded engine. Very kinky hose. Unwind. Still kinky. Still flooded. Oh my gosh. Where’s Steve? Still on the phone. Finally. Rescued. Started.

Headed to the grocery store. Quickly. Really want to get that run in. Randall's would be closer. No. Remember, I don’t have a job. HEB is much more economical. I won’t tempt myself. I’ll bypass Randall's on the side road.

LOOK.

There were bluebonnets everywhere along that side road. Frankly, I think they must be at peak this week. Kind of ironic - when the world’s falling apart, nature has found it’s perfection. Gorgeous. But I’m in a hurry. I wonder if traffic will be heavier today on the main road? I wonder if there will be a line again today at HEB? I wonder if "the" virus is lurking anywhere in the store waiting for its next victim? I wonder if they'll have more hand sanitizer available to use while shopping today?

LOOK.

There’s a line to get in again. I’ll get gas first. Ick. Who all has touched this pump? Where's my hand sanitizer? Where's a disinfectant wipe? Finish. Jump in the car. Look in the mirror. Darn. Gas cap hanging off. Back out of the car. Maybe the line has died down by now.

No luck. Ok. Here I am. In line. Oh no. Someone recognizes me six feet from them. I’ve got my surf trucker cap pulled down with sunglasses on, but the conversation is real and stems around our high school seniors’ pain during this crisis. But fifteen minutes later and I’m “in”. Everyone’s minding their own business, so it’s pretty easy to navigate. Until I realize I don’t have my credit card. What the heck? Gas pumps? The Bermuda Triangle crevice between my console and seat? I ask permission, reverse through the doors and sprint back to my car. Yup. Crevice.

Pencil poking. Sunglass swiping. Violent seat sliding. Lots of flicking. Credit card reclaimed. And back in I go. No, people, I’m not cutting the line; just left here and my partially filled buggy is right inside the doors.

In “record time” of 2.5 hours I was on my way back home. Still determined to Get Out. But instead of a run, I opt for a bike ride. Those amazing bluebonnets were calling my name. And instead of running, I needed wind in my hair, grit on my legs and some speed down hills. I needed some nature and fresh air paired with a bit more adrenaline to relieve what was ailing me. #natureismedicine and I could use a good dose. There’s evidence-based science surrounding what nature can do for you mentally and physically - and if used intentionally just perhaps that knot in my chest and hole in my gut would subside. Preaching to the preacher with this sermon.

But on this journey, for a change I didn’t speed down our road. I was on my mountain bike, on the sidewalk and some self-made “off sidewalk” trails. I’d spent countless hours on a bike on this road training for Ironman events, Ironman 70.3’s, sprint triathlons, a gazillion events, a gazillion miles - and most of them in 2D - not really LOOKING, but going places, putting the miles in on seven, eight and nine hour bike rides...year after year. Not today.

I’m going to LOOK.


As I got closer to the fields of bluebonnets, I could smell them first. Yes, close to peak. Nothing like that smell - especially when you are a born and raised Texan. But my goal was to LOOK. Not speed past them or just see a field of rolling blue. I wanted to intentionally see each one I could. Every orange Indian Paintbrush that sat within them; every, but few, violet Wine Cup. And suddenly I was really on the LOOKout. I decided I was going to intentionally going LOOK until I found a white bluebonnet. I knew I would. Slowly cruising. Scanning. Absorbed in the moment. Intentionally. Bingo. Found one.

It all suddenly came together for me. The medicine was potent. If I hadn’t been intentionally looking I would have only seen the bigger picture - a rolling stream of blurred blue. But by knowing what I wanted to look for, I found it. (Granted, finding a white bluebonnet in Texas is pretty much like finding a four leaf clover, but I also believe in God-incidences, so yay God. ;-)

Just exactly like this very week during this awful health crisis, I could go and LOOK for the negative, the maybe’s, the fiction, all of the stress, the pent up anguish, anxiety and uncertainties. OR, if we are intentional, if we trust and if we LOOK, thankfully, we do indeed get exactly what we LOOK for.






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wow! What A Ride!

Image
Today - 25 years Ago. Kona Oct. 2013 May 13, 1989. Yup. The day we were married. River Place Country Club. Only a club and golf course back then. No houses. One road. I think that was one of the last big rainstorms we had, too - aside from last night! Well, actually, one of the last most memorable storms. My dad forgot his bow tie-thingy (not really a bow tie, but a western version of that). He left the country club about an hour prior to the start of the wedding and 30 minutes after the wedding was supposed to start hadn't shown back up. The creeks were rising, the canyons flooding, and large softball size hail was falling from the sky. Dad was late - but not too late to have put one of the super-sized hail balls in the freezer for proof as to why a room full of people were anxiously awaiting his arrival. It was a "turd floater" as we call that kind of storm here in Texas. But right when we decided to go ahead and start the wedding (because everyone was running la
Read more

Living Out Our Choices

Image
My parents are now in their mid-80's. It is so odd for me to think of my parents nearing the last chapters of their lives. To me, my timeless memories of my dad will always be racing me on horseback up canyon walls that had my stirrups dragging the ground and my face buried in my horses main we were at such a steep angle; him pushing me down so I'd have to get back up to win a sprint across the yard with him; building a backstop so he could teach us how to connect with a baseball; and always telling me "If you're not falling, you're not learning." My lifelong mom memories are of her nurturing us and our friends - weekend after weekend, feeding us almost every other hour when we'd come in off the lake "starving"; always making sure the fridge was stocked to host the revolving door of lake friends that would come over; and then when my kids were born, having never-ending energy to be the first one up and over at the house checking in on what th
Read more

A Year of Living Present

Image
 Be Present With Me God does have a sense of humor I'm convinced. There have been many times in my life I lift my chin to the sky and give Him a little wink. "HaHa. You knew what you were doing." He's wise like that, and me, sometimes not so sharp. Like my last name. Present. For years I joked, "...and accounted for." But then mindfulness became a thing and I almost had to say, "uh oh". What excuse do I have? Present. I'm going to stay away from the "being mindful" aspect. Let's keep this simple. A 12-month focus with a personal practice of being in the moment, engaged, committed, connected, immersed. There are many words that describe "it", but doing "it" can be another story.  I find it's purely a habit. We all know there are a gazillion distractions in our day and age: technology, multi-tasking, a fast-paced life, not enough hours in the day - another list that goes on and on. But the habits we navigate
Read more