Do you feel life?

Feel life.  Stop trying to understand it.

Things are a little crazy in the world right now, but if you look back one, ten, twenty or especially one hundred years ago, things were pretty wild then too.

So what do we do?  How can we live out the routine of our lives without being engulfed by our thoughts, feelings, wonderings, kids, parents, students, colleagues, crazy friends, family, etc.?

The answer (I think) is to start feeling again.  The human brain is remarkable and things that people much smarter than myself have achieved since the dawn of time are downright incredible.  However, maybe we weren’t meant to “figure everything out.”  I saw a wall of clouds that looked more like a tidal wave this week on my way to work before the rain started and I felt something.  I honestly wanted to stop and take a photo because I knew that fleeting panoramic view wouldn’t last, but I was on the interstate and I hadn’t had enough coffee yet.  

Are we meant to figure everything out?  Maybe the days (or even years) of my life I believed I had completely dialed weren’t as ideal as I originally thought.  I feel like time softens our memories and things were either better or worse than we can actually recollect.  I think both can be true depending on the circumstances.

I’m paraphrasing from Pleasantville here, but there is no perfect car, life, job, house, etc.  It’s just society or our inner self telling us what’s allegedly “perfect.”  Can we love those things and really feel them even if they’re not perfect?  Most definitely.  I love my truck, but it has some kinks.  I love my job (sometimes), but it’s also the most frustrating thing in my life on certain days (especially Mondays).  However, even today I had a student enlighten me with some new information that I truly felt because of the sincerity in which it was delivered.

Do you feel life?

I fish a lot and everyone knows that.  Every single time I go fly fishing I feel something.  A living thing on the end of my line.  The call of a bird I can often recognize.  The chill of the water on my hands when releasing a beautiful trout.  The sting of the wind on my face now that actual Spring has finally arrived in Colorado.  The feeling of the rocks beneath my boots as I slip and slide up or downriver.  My senses are heightened when I’m on the water and I’m so grateful to get to share the river with nature (and myself).

Remember to feel life and don’t forget to look up.