Deliberate Living

When I was first studying music, one teacher told me that music was what happened in the spaces between the notes. It was just as important to be creating space as it was to hit the perfect pitch, tone and expression. This thought changed the way I looked at the music, giving the spaces as much importance as the notes themselves.

Life is also like this. We need to give as much weight to the spaces between activities as we do the activities. If we allow those spaces to vanish, much of the beauty is lost. (If you don't believe me, listen to Flight Of the Bumblebee a few times in a row).We face overwhelm daily with all of the information that comes at us.. It is so tempting to keep on going forward with our never-ending to-do lists, never taking the breaks to give meaning to our tasks. One important concept in getting to a more peaceful state is to slow down and create those periods of space.

When deciding to hang onto a stock you have purchased, it's not about what you paid before. You have to consider if you would buy it again today, knowing about its performance since you purchased it. The same guidelines can help us get more deliberate in our lives.

I really dislike being asked what my life purpose is. Here's now I approach a lack of a singular over-arching driving goal.

Do you have people on your task list?

My then-five-year-old spotted her name at the top of my task list. She wanted to know what it meant, and I explained to her that it was there so I would make sure to play with her.