lag phase

Here I sit between huge tasks in life and think, "OK, things are relaxed because there's nothing massive to deal with this week or next." But are they really? There's always a phase where things are relatively manageable but in reality, if you squander your time during the lag phase you will be doomed to be shocked by the amount of things that are on your plate when you actually do have a hill to climb.

This brings me to my overall thoughts on life. So many people in this country think that feeling awe and being overwhelmed by life is a sign that things are out of balance. They pine for the time when things were more manageable, when life was characterized by ease. But it seems to me that that sentiment against which we revolt and usually call a bad thing is actually our coming to grips with a life lived well, and that the feeling that frightens us is really our own fear of living life fully.

Those tinges of terror that frighten us are really calls beckoning to arise from our slumber and stop the comatose existence that characterizes our generation. The ability to feel means we will be hurt, but it also means that we can feel joy. And that latter result is far more important than some sort of insular existence where we think that we are invulnerable.