This weekend I am sitting in an AirBnB in Charlotte, NC. My wife and I are visiting my son Luke to celebrate his 22nd birthday. It felt great to wrap my arms around him in a bear hug and chat and laugh over a meal. He opened gifts and we played with one of his new tools disassembling a 100 year old banjo that he wants to restore. We talked about life and work and school and football and politics. We shared stories of our adventures over the last month. As I settled into bed last night I felt restored.
Sitting down this morning to write, my wife made an offhand comment. “Don’t you ever take a vacation?” It got me thinking about work-life balance and what that really means. One thing I know for sure is that it does not mean work, rest, and recreation in equal measure. It is not a simple equation.
I watched a video the other day of a man building a cairn, a stack of rocks which mark a trail. It was the most exquisite and precarious stack I my have ever seen. It took extreme patience to find the balance point and any small deviation sent the stack tumbling.
I would rather think of my balance as far more robust. Wide flat rocks. One atop the other on a solid flat base. A balance where each part supports the others and no one thing stands alone.
It restores me, makes me feel good, to have taken the time to share a few thoughts with you this morning. But, I will be brief because a walk with my wife, coffee at Starbucks, and a brunch with my son awaits me.
How do you think about balance in your life? ~ Paul
This weekend I am sitting in an AirBnB in Charlotte, NC. My wife and I are visiting my son Luke to celebrate his 22nd birthday. It felt great to wrap my arms around him in a bear hug and chat and laugh over a meal. He opened gifts and we played with one of his new tools disassembling a 100 year old banjo that he wants to restore. We talked about life and work and school and football and politics. We shared stories of our adventures over the last month. As I settled into bed last night I felt restored.
Sitting down this morning to write, my wife made an offhand comment. “Don’t you ever take a vacation?” It got me thinking about work-life balance and what that really means. One thing I know for sure is that it does not mean work, rest, and recreation in equal measure. It is not a simple equation.
I watched a video the other day of a man building a cairn, a stack of rocks which mark a trail. It was the most exquisite and precarious stack I my have ever seen. It took extreme patience to find the balance point and any small deviation sent the stack tumbling.
I would rather think of my balance as far more robust. Wide flat rocks. One atop the other on a solid flat base. A balance where each part supports the others and no one thing stands alone.
It restores me, makes me feel good, to have taken the time to share a few thoughts with you this morning. But, I will be brief because a walk with my wife, coffee at Starbucks, and a brunch with my son awaits me.
How do you think about balance in your life? ~ Paul
