When we look back on the life we live year after year, we need to be proud of the way we have traveled through time. My questions for the last two months of this year:

(1) Am I making calculated and well placed strides toward the dream? Am I getting there bit by bit?

(2) Have I learned to enjoy the journey? And what can I do about it if I’m not enjoying my life?

(3) What lesson stands between me and my dreams?

Since time travel is a part of life, I might as well learn how to travel in style. What about you?

-MizJAI-
I’m learning that successful Time Travel requires tranquility, balance, as well as ‘grinding’ for the dream and hard work.

The line comes from a little jazz ballad that I heard Natalie Cole sing, as many have done before, but her version stays on my mind. She talk’s of love, but I am talking about you.

There is this thing that makes you unique from everyone. For all the elements that we share: symmetry in our body, being human, as well as a myriad of other things that we have in common with all kinds of people all over the planet, there is something that makes us unique, and that thing is priceless.

You’ve heard this before, but each snow flake is different. In turn, each person’s experience is with a different flake and therefore a slightly different moment. Well, each human is different and each of our experiences are slightly varied from moment to moment from person to person. I am saying, while you don’t need to shave your head bald and choose the strangest outfits you can in order to stand out, you do need to take inventory of you and make a decision to love what makes you different and special. Let the residue of that high school drama go. You no longer need to be like everyone else to survive, you never did. Go ahead and be very, very extraordinary.

-MizJAI-

• L is for Love
• O is for Outstanding
• V is for Very, Very Extraordinary
• E is for Everlasting

Balance is my issue. I’m not the only one, but I am certain it’s my issue. The challenge of learning how to work and play, build the dream and address the right now, possess a vision and to see the present; is the test of my life.

I was wondering this week, “Why is this lesson so important?” And this is what I discovered:

If I don’t learn to balance my life in pain, then I can’t trust myself to balance my life in pleasure. What I mean by this is, despite my work load and my dedication to what I do, I am finally learning when to rest and to laugh and to take a lunch and to change my scenery and to find the joy in the simple things now in the midst of the hard days. Why? because like my spirit, my soul and my body can reach a place daily where they need to be renewed with a nap or a free moment with no expectations and no work or a good honest laugh or a great dance or a day away or daily escapes inside the creative process (make a collage, write a poem, rearrange a song . . .). And then go back to work.

I find that if I give too much of myself away, then I become off centered and overwhelmed with one sided emotions; and I have less to give as the days go by. Anthony Robbins touches on this. He believes that we can organize all of our lives into categories. And when we find ourselves out of wack then it usually means that we have neglected some part of us. In other words, we’ve been spending too much time on the business development and not enough on the spirit that lives in this body of ours or we have been working double time on mastering our money but haven’t been addressing our creative side (for me it’s writing). And for one more example, it’s like spending a tremendous amount of time on keeping the house looking great but not enough on the family that lives in the house (so our relationships suffer).

Whatever it is, balance requires that we don’t get stuck in one place or another. Every time I loose my balance the kickboxing coach at the gym yells, “stay light on our feet, don’t get stuck in one position, that’s how you get knocked down.” He yelled it so much on Tuesday that I want to say it to you, “…lay aside every weight and the pain (because sin is a pain, sooner or later) which clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us (Heb. 12:1).” In other words, don’t get stuck. Keep running the race and the landscape of our lives will change.

The picture above is a black and white of a coffee shop that I go to from time to time for a scenery change. A strong cup of peppermint later and I am ready to save the world for another hour or two (hey, at least I’m in motion). P.S. my computer is well again

-MizJAI-

I used to find myself envying people who where in between jobs. These weren’t just any kind of people; they were artist and dreamers, like me, who had desires to create something new or different or just something of their own. And I envied
the lack of “traditional work” that gets “in the way” and
the forced responsibility to make their dream real, right now.

But I am learning this: my life is MY life. And my schedule IS full with work and ministry, but as it turns out, there is very little that is “traditional” about it. I am a preacher’s kid and the “business” of people is important to God, so it is important to me. And it comes with a bunch of interesting stories and experiences that I am learning to embrace. My family is my heart beat, & the extra effort it takes to work to build a dream is my passion. So, I am learning to live my own life, to fulfill my assignment in the earth and let Jane the Artist fill hers.

Besides, these same people have full days too; looking for jobs, concerns about money. And they deal with the same constant tug and balance of meeting daily needs while pursuing their dreams and having some fun along the way.

After reevaluating I now realize that we are all in the same water. Our boats may look different, but we are all working to get to the other side. I just hope that we enjoy the water along the way. As long as we are alive with dreams and desires, our days are going to be full, and that’s OK.

MizJAI . . . appreciating life