Fun but Not Too Much
Sitting here writing this morning for a couple of reasons.
1 - I have poor self care habits and one attempt to improve is to better integrate time for self care into my daily routines. This is one such time. Plan is still very fluid but here we go…
2 - Sharing. I’ve recently been increasing many aspects of my sharing also to encourage better self care. Now the sharing is intentional and purposeful so if it's just spew out of my brain that would only be intelligible other than to me, well that sharing is just for me usually. If it’s sharing of a different type and intent, it may be shared more broadly. Not just to share but sharing to connect. While I already have many connections of many types, I feel the need to increase some types of connections. I also hope that on occasion I may be the connection someone else needed. Right place. Right time. Great connection. Reason, indeterminate but doesn’t really matter.
Now to the real topic - Fun but Not Too Much
Typical morning at work, doing what I call daily fly swatting aka follow up in a quick and furious fashion on active items that need it.
Once flies are all swatted or at least out of the room, onto the more meaningful activities of the day. Usually new, usually thoughtful and usually about change.
Today’s first up brought a thought. Wow if we get this right, this could be fun.
Fun, really it’s work. Ok. It could be ALMOST fun.
ALMOST fun brought a favorite person of mine to mind Joe Z.
Ahhh Joe Z. aka Joe Zielkowski. Stereotypical big teddy bear where it’s mostly just the best of the stereotypes. A few quirks too. We all have them. He knew how to embrace them. Self and in others. Didn’t matter.
Joe Z who took me from a gangly wannabe GUI Boy Windows Nerd to a full fledged beanie wearing cmd line command yielding still wannabe nerd. Eventually he helped my nerd maturation. He also upped my game in many other areas, too many to list. Besides, it doesn't matter to the topic.
So why this guy, Joe Z? Joe Z was the genius who one day said, I have so much work I am going to start calling work FUN. I’ll have FUN all the time and I’ll have more FUN than ever in life.
We adopted this and all went to FUN everyday, where we did/had FUN together. Lotsa FUN. Great FUN. Sometimes not that funny FUN.
FUN with Joe Z went on for many years. Things changed. Ppl moved.
Joe Z passed. He was at home. Having FUN I expect and then the FUN ended. Just like that.
Joe Z was celebrated by family and friends far and near. Many in person. I from afar.
Great memories. Even GREATER FUN. That was Joe Z. No matter how you define FUN.
What I enjoy most, the smile Joe Z brought and brings. Oh the FUN.
Today's lessons for me. Make time for Self Care. Else it won’t happen. If you’re good at self care, help someone who’s not. If you're not, maybe share as a form of self care. Because caring for others is I believe the highest form of self care. Maybe share with intent or purpose. That’s not how you’ll share or who will see it but why.
Connect. Put yourself, your thoughts out into the world. Raw, unvarnished, unpolished. Embrace the UNs. It’s scary especially when it will be exposed and subject to whatever others think it should be. Maybe it will be a tree falling in the forest. You still saw it, you may have heard it even if no one else ever does. It's yours forever. Regardless.
Most of all let's have some FUN. Alone. Together. Over here. Over there. FUN everywhere.
Fun but Not Too Much
I hope your life has a multitude of blessings like mine - A Joe Z of your own. I hope you can talk to Joe Z, if you can’t just smile and reminisce.
Take care of yourself and others.
God bless.
And a quick quote from the book that put my on this particular part of my journey:
“You often feel tired, not because you’ve done too much, but because you’ve done too little of what sparks a light in you.” Nothing You Don’t Already Know - Alexander Den Heiler
It’s the first quote from the book. In my first step toward living what it brought to me.
Also this is for Brandon (and his Freya-isms) and Colin (and his never ending unwavering good intent). They keep me….. well, they just keep me and that’s enough.
Self care is incredibly important. I’ve been working on it as well. The more love and care we invest in ourselves, the more we have to share with the world. I’m also adopting Joe Z’s philosophy now. Amazing share. Great read.