On the in-between
Labor, value, and space to think
Hello friends,
Happy Labor Day! I am taking it easy all weekend and, in line with the holiday, spending time thinking about how and where I choose to direct my energy. I’m thinking about what’s been given, received, and what is owed between my relationships with myself, others, and institutions that intersect my life.
I tend to take stock of things during my birthday and personal New Year in January, but with fall whispering its imminent arrival into the evening air and the tapering of sunlight, I, as well as the whole of nature, am beginning to reckon conserving energy leading into the winter months. Yes, I said it, winter! We are three months away from Christmas, people.
I digress.
The point being how you spend your time is how you spend your life. So, it is crucial to check in and take inventory of how I am living (with)in purpose. It’s a reminder that it is not the big checkpoints of life – the celebrations, awards, and recognitions – that make life the joy-filled play ground that it is. Rather it is the simple pleasures of the everyday, the in-between, which makes life worth living.
I went to a football game this weekend. It was the first of the season for Boston College.
The last time the team took the field was November 26th, 2022, 284 days prior, and the fans let their longing be known. The two teams ran out of their respective locker room and onto the field to the applause or jeers of spectators, depending on what section you paid attention to. As the teams lined up face to face, the crowd reached a fever pitch. The time since their last opportunity to spectate did little to dampen their fandom. In reality, the anticipation of the next chance to dominate heightened it.
Sports are one of the very few instances in life where we know the exact date and time we will be faced with a challenge. In real life, they pop up whether convenient or inconvenient, prepared or not. However, just like the off-season of athletics, the time between challenges often prepares us for the difficulty to come.
There’s nothing about the seed that reveals the oak within. Not the color, the weight, and certainly not the size. Yet it is the space in between, the becoming, that makes it possible to say that this mighty thing came from a tiny that. Of course, from roots comes a stem to a leaf, then bark and branches. Of course, from grounding comes grandeur. And maybe something about fighting through the mud prepares you for the wind.
It’s the moment right before the match drags across the strike pad. Where the potential energy, everything to fuel its combustion, is present in its entirety.
It’s a straight line of 11 three-point stances. The contraction of quadriceps prior to exertion. It’s the calm before a clash of bodies against one another.
I’m curious about the space in between because within it lies the truth of how we view the world.
It’s how we create our next.
I am wishing you time, space, and energy today and always to live the life of your dreams.
Love always,
RL
The prep before a challenge is huge. You can’t truly know what the challenge may be, but being prepared in a well rounded way can’t hurt. Great read.