Tag: relax

  • Hold the reigns tightly

    Photo by MyEyeSees via Flickr (Creative Commons)

    I’ll never forget the first time I rode a horse. 

    Growing up in the city meant that horses just weren’t part of my life. I remember seeing horses as a kid at parades. At the county fair in the horse barns. Or occasionally at big football game when the police brought in horses for crowd control.

    And I wasn’t one of those city slickers who dreamed of the open range wrangling up some cows.

    I was 19 years old the first time I rode a horse. And I rode a horse because I had to for a college class.

    It was an intimidating experience. This animal was 10 times bigger than me. It was taller than me. And it was infinitely stronger than me. Somehow I was supposed to sit on it and “control” it with a tiny piece of leather and some kicks?

    Yeah, right.

    The horse I rode could have cared less that I existed. It was an old camp trail horse who had seen a million riders over a million years and barely even acknowledged my existence. It was one of those horses that you could tell used to be big, strong, and attractive in its youth but now its best description would be, “tired.”

    Before I put my foot in the stirrups I tried to get to know him and pat him on the head. He just took a leak and looked away.

    I wish I could describe the experience as enjoyable. It wasn’t. It was uncomfortable and bumpy and I felt completely stupid on the horse. It didn’t seem to matter what I “told” the horse to do as it just walked the trail. When it got behind it trotted up ahead to catch up with its friends. Whenever it wanted to– it stopped to eat grass. And when it was done with me it used trees and branches to try to knock me off its back.

    To make matter worse everyone else seemed to be having a great time. All I felt like was kicked in the gonads 200 times. I tried to make the best of it but it just wasn’t fun and I couldn’t wait for it to be over.

    Standing in the barn after the trail ride I asked the person who ran the trail rides why I hated it so much. She just kind of laughed. “Probably because you fought the horse the whole time. And probably because you were scared. It would have been fun if you’d just held on tight and relaxed.”

    That’s a lot like my relationship with God

    When it’s unpleasant, when I’m scared, when I’m intimidated, and when I’m trying to be in control… walking with God is like getting kicked in the gonads 200 times.

    Often times God just wants us to hold onto the reigns real tight and relax.

     “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, 
       neither are your ways my ways,” 
                declares the LORD. 
    “As the heavens are higher than the earth, 
       so are my ways higher than your ways 
       and my thoughts than your thoughts. 
    As the rain and the snow 
       come down from heaven, 
    and do not return to it 
       without watering the earth 
    and making it bud and flourish, 
       so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 
    so is my word that goes out from my mouth: 
       It will not return to me empty, 
    but will accomplish what I desire 
       and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. 

    Isaiah 55:8-11

  • Staycation Success

    Paul was big pimpin' at the vacation house.

    We did it!

    It feels good just to say it. “We had a successful vacation.”

    Last night, Kristen and I went for a walk in our neighborhood and this was really the summary statement of our week in Carlsbad.

    It was nice to get away while only traveling about 40 minutes from our house. I don’t have any fascinating results to reveal… but here is a hodgepodge of things I’m thinking about last week.

    • The rhythm and pace of the week was great. Nearly every day we woke up, watched the World Cup while drinking coffee, went to the pool, had lunch, went to the beach, ate dinner, watched a movie, and went to sleep.
    • Opening up our vacation to a bigger definition of our family made a huge difference. It just wouldn’t have been as much fun without Kristen’s parent, my niece Allison, Erin, and Lisa. While it likely effected the bottom line a little, it was priceless to spend the quality/quantity time with them.
    • It was also fun to bring Stoney, our yellow lab. Renting a dog-friendly house was pretty simple and it was a bonus to have him along. I don’t want to sound like one of those people but he really is part of our family.
    • Kristen likes shells… a lot. One two mornings Kristen went shell hunting. It was almost embarrassing how many shells we brought home. Almost.
    • We learned the playmate lesson. While it definitely helped Megan to have someone her age to play with… we REALLY needed to have a playmate as well. Next time.
    • Have we found a vacation style we all like? Kristen and I like two different types of vacations. I like to unplug and do just about nothing. Kristen finds it very refreshing to explore new places. This really afforded us the opportunity to do either, neither, or both.
    • Turning off the computers and my brain was awesome. I don’t have a single blog post I wrote while on vacation. Nor did I think much about work. I told Kristen last night… generally vacations make me antsy to get hyper productive and this one didn’t. I think it just revealed how exhausted I had been.
    • Our party on Friday night was a blast. More on celebrating our marriage another day.
    • I love hanging with my kids. I know you are supposed to like being with your kids. But I really love being with them. There’s no other way to describe it.
    • I cannot get enough beach. That’s pretty funny for a guy born in Indiana. But it is true. Most of our vacations somehow involve a large body of water… I guess I’m just hard wired to relax by the ocean.
    • Wine has a magical ability to multiply. We started our party on Friday night with 8 bottles of wine. By the time the party was over we had 12. It was an anniversary miracle! OK, I think its just that people like to bring wine to dinner parties. We still got a chuckle out of  that.
    • Our garden didn’t take a vacation. I came back a couple of times to water and drove back up to the house with baskets of tomatoes, squash, and green beans.
    • Every vacation house needs a soaking tub. The bathroom in the master suite had a massive whirlpool tub. And all of us took turns enjoying a nice bath. It’s the simple pleasures in life, sometimes!

    I’ll be getting back to my normal blogging self by the end of the week.

  • Pressing Play on Life

    I woke up thinking about this song. Flashback to the 90s, right?

    In so many ways life has felt like it was on pause since September when I went to LA for convention. I’ve just been consumed by work. It swallowed me.

    And yesterday brought so much release. (Er, if the illustration of “swallowed by work” holds true, I guess that means work vomited or pooped me out? Let’s just not take the illustration there.) When I got home yesterday, I just felt like life could return to normal. I went to Target to Christmas shop. I took a little nap. I took Kristen out to a very nice restaurant and a movie. And this morning… it’s time to grab the leash and take Stoney to the beach.

    Back to life, back to reality…

    I’ll spare you the video of me dancing. But just so you know, I’m dancing.