#361

One of 'life's questions' I've pondered the most – as an adult anyway – is how to reconcile the messages, internal and external, of 'strive, achieve, advance, obtain' with 'be grateful; you're lucky and blessed; find some personal peace.' These ideas aren't entirely oil and water if, say, you're a Buddhist monk or Himalayan yogi. For me, however, 'striving' and 'contentment' chafe and clash like the Hatfields and McCoys, Capone and Moran, Hamilton and Burr (Carthage and Rome, the North and South, the Cubs and Cards; you get it). It took Lincoln and Grant to join the Blue and Gray, forcefully, and I likely won't be President and remembered forever. So what to do? Well, choose your parents well (insert smile). I did that. A good start. And enjoy the work, the struggle. I do that too. As a kid of course, with life just beginning its arc, things are a bit simpler; be a good student, sports and activities, get the girl, be a good person. Things in my 30s and 40s don't feel so clear, clean, untangled. Middle life, with kids, bills, a house, a career.... It's a bit more complicated, no? Calling it work-life balance doesn't describe it for me. Life-life balance is what I'm after, and what the hell does that mean? I suppose my goal, and my wish for M 'n' m, is daily brushes and breezes of joy, contentment, and gratitude, while maintaining a healthy and responsible big picture. But that sounds trite. I'll tell them to 'choose good wants.' That's important. Because 'wants' are often what lights the fire and keeps it burning. I want the best of M 'n' m; that's a big, burning, blazing fire for me, and I'm grateful for it. As for 'life-life balance,' I guess they'll figure it out. I hope I do too.