Embracing the ground!

And so I am back. And when I say I am back, I really mean it. I have been sidelined for 18 months due to health reasons. I had cancer, and it tried to take me out. I hope the natural smile on my face says that to you! There is something healing about moving into a new stage of life. And there is something really fun about getting to hear the dreams of other people. I had become so self focused for over 18 months. It is really hard to lay in a bed, or, sit on a couch for 18 months. That was my playbook for over a year. Cancer tried to kill me. Cancer crept into all the dark spaces of my head, heart, and spirit. But now there is a new season that has come around the bend!  

And I think I am seeing what was hard about the creep. One of the difficulties of it is that it lacks variation. It tells a lie. I am a man that needs variation in my life. Just like the color wheel, there are different colors that come up every day in our lives. God didn’t create everything tethered in black or blue. No. We also have green. And yellow. When I sat on my bed and laid on my couch for over a year, due to cancer, there was something that went on inside of me that went to yellow. It makes me think of that old Coldplay song, Yellow. “It was all yellow,” says the lead, Chris Martin  

Yellow also needs the green of the trees. Yellow needs the hard purple in the background. As I sit at this coffee shop reflecting on these words, there are 3 reasons why I am so happy to have left “yellow.” 

1. I get to serve other people. I really love the energy I get from serving other folks. As I sit in a coffee shop and listen to the story behind the story, I get to “see” the person. It’s especially important to listen when I am trying to encourage them to build a nest. 
2. I get to be myself. I’ve learned that God has fashioned me for the marketplace, and that inside this nest of the marketplace, I thrive. The bottom line is not the money. The bottom line is finding the twigs, berries, and thistle inside the hearts of those that sit in front of me at the coffee shop.
3. Working gets me out of my head. Working balances out my emotional up and down. I get variation when I work. We all need that type of change. Otherwise, we get stuck. It’s time to be unstuck. Our bodies are so used to change. It’s true, down to the cellular level. Overall, it’s just so great to be back on the ground, pounding the pavement.