Life is meant to be lived. We all get into ruts at times, focused on the day to day, and forgetting that this is a once in a lifetime adventure. When that happens, you sometimes just have to do something crazy to break the cycle. Maybe it’s take a sudden vacation. Maybe it’s packing up and moving half way around the world. Maybe it’s splurging on something you’ve always wanted but couldn’t logically justify. Maybe it’s a combination. ?
Earlier this year I was in a bit of a rut. We had things we wanted to accomplish, but we were caught up in the day to day and didn’t feel like we were making progress on our goals. I needed to do something, even if it was symbolic in a way. I needed to take control of something, that didn’t necessarily have to be important, but the longer I’d been waffling on it the better.
I opened up my web browser and went to a page I’ve had bookmarked for years. It was something I’d talked myself into and out-of buying over and over again. “Next bonus, I’m going to do it!” “I don’t need it, it can wait.” over and over… This time I placed an order. Looking at it rationally, logically, it was a very silly purchase. It wasn’t mid-life crisis sports car silly, but it was something I certainly didn’t need. Getting out of a rut means responding to more than just needs, and this was the perfect chunk of pipeline clogging indecision to clear out of the back of my brain.
I kid you not, things got crazy after that. Two weeks later I had a job offer in New Zealand and we were putting the house on the market. We made a lot of rapid fire decisions that were all about our desires, to Hell with our short term needs. It was like floodgates of change had opened up.
Was it the purchase? Of course not! It was the change in my attitude. It was getting out of the frame of mind of making decisions focused on the day to day grind. It was unblocking myself from making scary decisions. The purchase was just the catalyst, and the bonus prize I received when we’d completed a rather major life shift. For even though I made the purchase months ago, it had to be hand made and only caught up with me yesterday. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect, in that we are pretty well settled into the new house, in the new country, even if we have a garage full of cardboard boxes to get rid of. ?
So, what the hell did I buy? In a way it doesn’t matter, but I’d be a cruel bastard if you had read this far and I never said. I bought Lady Vivamus, my mental picture of the perfect sword, as described by Robert Heinlein in Glory Road. It’s a symbol of childhood dreams realized, much like moving to New Zealand.
It’s a reminder that “While we live, let us live!”
