Ice Cream and a Pickup Truck
Hi Friends! I hope the first quarter of this year treated you well. This post is a few months in the making (hello writers block!), but better late than never, so let’s get into it.
A few months ago, I ate ice cream on the back of a friends’ pickup truck with the sun beaming on my face. My feet were kicking off the edge and I felt like a complete kid for a few minutes. If I could bottle up a feeling of summer, that was it. Life had been doing its thing for the last few months, and I was on the exhausted end of the spectrum. As I look back, some of the most impactful moments I have had recently were totally spontaneous. If you know anything about me, then you know I love a good plan. If an event starts at 7pm, then I need to be getting ready at 5pm, so I can walk my dog at 6pm, leave at 6:30pm, and be parking by 6:45pm (because I’m usually early to things).
This Friday with my friend was as unplanned as it gets; we both just left a class we were teaching with our non-profit and both expressed being tired. However, when he suggested going to get the $5 happy hour wings at the Lumbar, I obliged because…well wings. Jeni’s is across the street so naturally that was the next step because…ice cream. 😂 Five minutes later we were sitting on the cargo bed of his truck gorging on a frozen dairy dessert. In that moment I no longer felt tired, and the stress of life seemed to melt just as easily as the ice cream in my cone.
We tend to live very fast-paced lives, with little time for enjoyment because “the early bird gets the worm.” The grind culture teaches us that rest is earned, and not a necessity. Tweets like “I’m grinding while everyone else is sleeping” are not necessarily the flex we think it is. I won’ get into the science of it all, but for simplicity’s sake, I will liken our bodies to a car, and gas to the energy we need to run. Obviously, once the gas runs out, the car cuts off. It doesn’t matter where you are. Once we are out of “gas” our body will shut down, and again it doesn’t matter where you are, what stage of life you’re in, or what project or assignment is coming up. We have all seen the saying “Rest or your body will force you to.” That is real.
If you’re rolling your eyes at the resting bit, I get it. Most of us are at the stage where the decisions we make now determine the course of the rest of your lives, and we feel the pressure to get so much done in “a short amount of time.” I get it, but sometimes it is best to just enjoy some ice cream in the sun. Take a few deep breaths, and let the sun shine on your face. Time is not running out, and it is never over unless you quit. 💕
Love Always,
CDOG