>    So much has been going on in my life this summer (not all of it intended) that I’ve reached a point of exhaustion. It’s a good time to think about “being” as opposed to “doing.”
    We are so action and accomplishment oriented in our society that we too often drive ourselves to the proverbial “edge” before acknowledging that sometimes it’s better to “just be” than to do anything at all.  I’m reminded of a scene from the Kevin Costner movie “Bull Durham” when, at the end of movie, Costner returns to his love, Maggie (played by Susan Sarandon)and finally express his love for her. Maggie goes into a stream of consciousness monologue about how she can change and what the relationship means to her when Costner interrupts and says, “That’s all fine. And we’ll get to all of it. But right now, I just want to be.” The next scene, and the last one in the movie, is a no-dialog shot of the two of them joyously, freestyle dancing in her living room.
    That’s what we don’t give ourselves enough of.
    Not so much silence and freestyle dancing as permission to just be.
    Just being is about truly feeling our inherent self-worth whether or not we make money or win a competition or excel in school or have a mate. It’s about honoring the temple that houses our Soul and slowing down enough to see and hear and smell the beauty in everything around us no matter where we are.
    In his book, Man’s Search For Meaning, Ph.D. and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl writes that when served dirty water with a floating fish head in it as the only meal of the day in the Concentration Camp, he was able “to see beauty in the floating fish head.”  Surely his circumstances had so brought him to the present moment and the value of not only the moment but everything around him that he learned this invaluable lesson. Through his writing, he has tried to impart that lesson to us.
    I oftentimes refer to Frankl’s quote when speaking to audiences or coaching one-on-one. But today I think I need to live it. 
    I am very tired (as I started out saying in this entry) and have many things that need my attention. I could keep busy the rest of the day just tending to a fraction of them.
    Instead, I think I’ll close now, go pick up the book I’m reading, and lay down on the couch. Maybe I’ll even fall asleep.
    Regardless, I’m going to love and value myself even though I’m not going to achieve anything more than resting…honoring the temple that houses my Soul.

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