Joy in the Journey

Have you ever heard anyone say "that person just really get's life"? Or "This person is just really successful in life."? I often wonder how I can become like that. I want someone to be able to say that about me someday, man he just really gets it. Or boy he is just so successful in life. I think that would be one of the biggest complements that one could ever receive. To truly just get life? Wow, I can't even begin to think what that would even mean for a person. To understand what it takes to be successful in life? How do you do that, how do you begin to start down that road. For me?

The thing that I think is, I have never really heard that about rich, powerful, or famous people. Macy and I were discussing Kobe Bryant the other day, because of course his big face was plastered all over a billboard advertising his "success" campaign. I told Macy, I feel bad for him. Because in a few more years he will have nothing left. He has given everything up for basketball, literally everything. In just a few short years he will be just a name on a chart, or a statistic that they will bring up someday when someone else breaks his records. At the end of his life, what will he say he has amounted too? So would you argue that he is someone who really just "gets life?" Are money, power, and prestige, all that matter in this life? That is the question.

In my life I think that I have had about 2 days go according to my plan. And I think both of those days happened in the second grade. The weather was perfect, I had no responsibilities all day, I caught every frisbee that was thrown to me and everything was bliss. Besides those 2 days in my life I have had to do something I didn't really want to do. I have had responsibilities, tasks, assignments, or obligations that needed to be fulfilled. Things that needed to be done. Life just wasn't perfect. Here is also the thing that I am starting to recognize, these days come every day. Despite what I do, or how I do it, trials, tribulations, and troubles come. Unexpected happiness seems to come, and successes in areas that I hadn't even been working on seem to come. It is what we call life. Now here is what I think that it takes to be someone who just get's life.

I think someone who just "get's life" is simply someone who is able to learn from the things that happen to them, and finds joy in the imperfection of what we call life. Because the other thing that I am learning is that there is joy to be had in the imperfection. There is a whole lot of joy to be had. You just have to learn to find it. And as I look around the world, I see that this learning process is a hard one to go through because all around us we see people unhappy with the imperfection in life, myself included. We get frustrated and mad, that not every single tiny, little, detail, goes exactly how we would want it to. We don't get 100% on a test, or we have to fill our cars up with gas. We have an assignment that is late, or we are more tired than we feel we should be, before the day is over. It might be raining, or windy. Someone might do something to offend us or be rude to us. So many things happen in one day it is hard to mention everything that might happen. However I am sure something will happen today that doesn't go according to my plan.

So I just got married. :) I just was married to the love of my life. Que: Macy. I wanted to mention Macy specifically in this post because I know many people who are on the road to being "successful at life" but she is source behind these thoughts that I have. Not that Macy would ever admit it, and she would be the last to say that she is even good at it however Macy is someone who is well on her way to just "getting life." This is one of the things that I love about her. I have known Macy for 18 months almost too the day and in those 18 months I don't think one day has gone according to her plan. As these days go by I have seen an amazing thing happen, she seems to find joy even in her toughest trials. Trials that I would not be able to go through, myself, she has learned to laugh at, and truly be happy in the midst of them. Now I say she is on her way to getting life for two reasons.

1) She would probably be really mad at me if I said she "got life" and she would say No I don't!

2) Because also I recognize that even she has grown since I have known her.

I am so glad that I married someone who gives me such a good example of something that I want to be, and become.

So fortunately for all of us who aren't rich, powerful, and famous that is not what life is all about in my opinion. At the end of our lives even if we aren't rich and famous we can say that we accounted for something. And luckily for rich, famous, people we can all amount to something in our life more than just money. We can become someone who just "get's life." I think from my very limited perspective that life truly is simply about finding joy in the imperfection. About finding Joy in the Journey.