Never underestimate the day

May 13, 2019

Greetings from where we prepare,

Nearly twenty years ago I started sharing notes with you on Monday mornings.  The start of the week is often filled with a certain anxiety, maybe even soaking into Sunday night.  The challenges and responsibilities of the day loom large, and sometimes we have a hard time looking directly at them.  On this morning, and every one since I began, I have sought to find a better way to start our week than dreading it.

Four weeks ago, to the minute, I stood in a hotel room and looked out the window at the wind and rain punishing the city.  Trees pleaded for mercy, bent over sidewalks, shredded by the wind, and the few people on the sidewalk were soaked by the monsoon.  I watched with a cold lump in my chest, knowing I would be running in that weather, struggled not to let that image ruin my hope.  Not many hours later I would line up to run the Boston Marathon.  Not a drop of rain fell on me until the last mile, and then it was a welcome, refreshing shower.

Never underestimate the day.

It’s human nature to see what could be challenges ahead and try to plan for them.  It’s a mature reaction to expect that problems will arise and to brace yourself for them, to some degree.  If we don’t factor in for rain, bring the umbrella, we get soaked.  Ah, but life is not just umbrellas.  It is what we experience, and what we make of that experience.  The quality of our life is not determined by what the weather does, or what people say or the chaos that sometimes awaits.  The full potential of our lives comes from how we fill the moments in anticipation, and response, to what comes to us.

I finished my coffee hours ago, already thinking of a list of things that wait for me.  Some are less than pleasant.  What also crossed my mind are a host of possible problems hovering around in the days to come.  I’m betting many of you have already gone through this exercise.  I caught myself, and now I am reaching out to shake some sense into you.  Never underestimate the day.

Some weeks ago I spoke to a group of training leaders for the Crim, a festival of races in my town.  I was looking forward to it, felt like I was prepared, and that the message was one they would find value in.  That morning I saw the impact was bigger than expected.  A few weeks later I was still running into people who were touched by the message.  I had underestimated the day.  And me.  And them.

Yesterday I ran in the cool morning, feeling the potential in me, feeling it in the grey morning.  It reminded me of many other days started this way, immersed in nature, feeling my body work, and having the time to let my thoughts gather in their own way.

A few miles into the run I turned up a trail, scattering rabbits, a band of deer, and climbed up a small bluff that overlooked the river there.  I stood in the slanted morning light there and felt my breath, the pounding of my heart and the stillness of the forest.  A few birds seasoned the moment, and then two woodpeckers added their percussion.  The beauty caught me by surprise, and I felt tears sting my eyes. 

I left home knowing, expecting an awesome morning, and even so, even feeling the potential, it took me being there to realize I had underestimated what the day held for me. 

What I know just from just the slightest reflection, the bit of perspective of a few days of experience, is that we will see the beauty and richness of every day if we expect to see it.  We will know the kindness and generosity of people if we expect to see it.  We will understand that even in rain or wind, even in the exchange with a stranger, or the unknown of the next moment, there is the potential for great things.  This color and flavor and power and love await in every day and we only risk missing it if we underestimate the possibilities.

Prepare for the best.  There are a few of you who will look askance at this, rolling your eyes at the naïve notion that what we expect has anything to do with reality, with what is given to us.  Yes, life happens to us in ways we can’t control. It’s still our choice where we put ourselves on the spectrum.  We don’t have to live in fear, we don’t have to simply accept that the worst is coming. 

The truth is we are going to have problems today, and tomorrow.  What we do with them is up to us, and that will be how we measure the day when we think about it next week.  Think about that as you process each challenge.  Expect that you will handle it the best you can, expect a good outcome, expect that others will be good humans.  You can see a rainstorm on the horizon and not agonize over it.  Otherwise you get wet twice.

I’ll admit my selfishness here; I’m writing this all for me, really.  I have to arm myself with these reminders or I will fall prey to the same angst that waited for me yesterday and last week and twenty years ago.  What I really want for myself, and for you, is to experience all that waits for me today, rain or shine, with the same spirit of high expectation that has always left me most satisfied in my life.  I know I am going to be closest to my best self if I never underestimate the day.

Hope this finds you leaning into the possible,

David

Copyright © 2019 David Smith