I am following the local Warriors basketball team play in the finals for the NBA (National Bas-ketball Association) Championship. This week, in the eve-nings, I've camped at the
Englander Sports Bar in San Leandro. There's been an edge of disappointment and anxiety to the event as this team had lost twice out of three games, in a best of seven series.
It was not possible, taking in the action in person. The game was played in Cleveland, Ohio, quite a stretch from California.
More than a three hundred and fifty people jammed into the restaurant. Tonight, I perched on a stool, against a ten inch (254 mm) counter space that lines against the front window. I was lucky. At least fifty-five people stood in the entrance, taking in the game, viewing it over the half-wall that guides you towards the bar. Another one hundred and fifty stood five people deep at the bar, viewing, over one another's shoulders, the action.
I spoke with a fellow near me, he with a white goatee, wearing sandals I wanted. Three other women were with him. Relatives. They mostly played with their smartphones as the game roared from TVs lining every wall in the restaurant. I sat near a giant screen.
A fix of adrenaline was in store. Complete strangers shook, stomped, had the veins in their necks sticking out from screaming and high-fived one another after a great play on the court by our team. A lot of emotion to take in. Vastly different from the quiet environment where I work.
Warriors won. Squaring the series. The two teams have two wins apiece. Best was the companionship and joy shared with strangers. This, in spite of administrative work demanding attention.
I did not pass an opportunity at celebrating life, taking in a historic moment for my community. An occasion that was forty years in the making. I know priorities. There's a time to work and time to play and celebrate the joyful moment.
My Gratitudes:
1. Making time for fun tonight, delighting in life and all the good it offers.
2. For committing to writing. It is a craft, scribing. I like it, suiting many needs of mine: precision, thought, patience, creation, wordsmithing, It allows me to construct, in a tangible form, a book or article, what I have studied and what I learn through vignettes that dot my week while working.
Several books I am working on. I am also creating material to be used in sessions.
3. For recycling water. Doing so is slowing the pace of my life. Throughout the day, I am pouring out buckets of waste water from the kitchen, focusing on parched areas in my front yard.
4. For the abundance life offers. My life is filled with joy, peace of mind, good friends, work that is fulfilling and a gentle, loving relationship with compassionate, caring, patient God.
5. For growth. My profession evolves me---for the better---every week. My studies help me better help those I serve. The best part I love this part of work. I am not the same Pablo I was yesterday, last week, much less a month or year ago.
6. It was rewarding, using a tool that was new for two clients I saw yesterday. The outcome was beyond marvelous. The sessions were transcendent. Healing took place, lives transformed.
How About You?
What are your three gratitudes for today?
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1 comment:
As one of the two clients who received the new (to me) exercise it was remarkable to see how much more forgiving I am to others than to myself. Time to lighten up, Dan!
Gratitudes:
1. Nature. Since that session (almost a week ago) I have had 3 chances to walk quietly in beautiful places. Watched my fellow animals go about their routines oblivious to my concerns (how important are they?). And, for all the talk about disharmony between humans and nature there are places I've seen this week where small human efforts have improved things.
Come to think of it, in my own small way, I have been improving nature, pulling weeds and watering desired plant in the backyard where I live.
2. Chances to express my self, both verbally and written, both creatively and in worthwhile work.
3. Seeing people and situations for what they are, not what I want them to be. Can be uncomfortable but I am learning to hold my own ground.
4. That when I ask for help, it shows up. Sometimes in the most unexpected places.
5. That for all my struggles, most of the time I'm in a positive fame of mind. My sponsor speaks of wearing "rose colored glasses." Maybe that's the case. But when I'm optimistic, I'm more effective and happy. Never noticed any good coming from wearing, well to be polite, brown-colored glasses.
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