Hi Friend
I got a hammock. It’s amazing. I don’t know why my life has been absent of such a powerful tool of goodness. I grew up having one of those white-rope hammocks in our back yard. With my own family, we had one of those as well until it disintegrated. My kids got me a replacement one that was flat fabric. I like it. I can swing and read on it.
However, my new one is like a nylon womb that encases and cuddles me. Granted my son has had one of these for years and I’ve used it before. Somehow though, and heck maybe because its 2020, mine is offering a level of divine peace and comfort I didn’t know could be attained via a hanging swinging bed. It’s magnificent.
The simplicity of the setup is ridiculous: Two straps, two carabiners, two trees, that’s it. The ease of portability – I can attach it to my bike and take it anywhere, also makes it fabulous. It stuffs in its little bag with no folding or thought.
I’m in love.
I’ve been held for hours by it’s embrace drifting in and out of sleep. Yet, what you might notice in those pictures above is not just the hammock but the environment it’s in. Every time I’ve used this magical floating human pouch I’ve been near a lake. The weather has been perfectly Fall. The sky and surroundings have been ideal.
All of that enchantment is funneled into a singular source.
Isn’t that just like us? So many variables at play, but we condense the entirety of the experience into an individual entity. I suspect if I hung the hammock in a Walmart parking lot, it might lose a little luster. Or if I strung it up in our family room, the dynamic would be entirely different. What if I brought it to your front yard and snoozed there? Then it would just be weird. 😆
This delightful device that has already brought such satisfaction to my soul, in and of itself, is not actually the giver of glee.
I wonder what else we attach an undeserved weight of emotion to, that is simply one element in a bigger picture? In the many days I’ve been alive I have seen positive and negative attributions asserted both to the inanimate and living.
We can take an entire toxic work environment and embody it within a boss whose personality and demeanor grates on us; imagining him the root of every woe.
We can purchase a spiffy new gadget or a classic piece of art and for days and weeks be enamored by the pleasure it brings, only to arrive in the future, looking for something else to sustain that sensation.
We can convince ourselves that an individual or a thing possesses a rare ability to provide or remove emotional fortitude in our being.
We can be mistaken too.
I’m grateful I take pictures when I’m out and about. It lets me see the whole of my surroundings not just the narrow glimpse my mind recalls.
Zooming out gives context.
Zooming out gives way for other perspectives.
Zooming out gives space to reconsider.
How can you and I zoom out to free ourselves from an inaccurately confined perspective? For me it’s a combination of friends, reflection, spiritual activity, writing, imagining and conversations. I process out loud, go figure.
Instigating Ideas
1. Consider where you’ve too heavily weighted someone or something.
2. Assess if you’re focusing on the wrong thing to fix, which perpetuates ongoing frustrations.
3. Utilize zooming out to discover other aspects of your life that produce joy.
4. Identify entire environments that rejuvenate you.
This feels important to me because I started out this morning wanting you to buy a hammock! Isn’t that how we do? But in reality, I don’t want you to buy a hammock. I want you to find your way outdoors. I can be in sync with nature, with or without the hammock. I’ve misappropriated the source of peace shrinking all of the natural environment into my nylon cradle.
By doing so, I set myself and others up for disappointment when the hammock doesn’t satisfy in other situations. Let’s zoom out from the hammock in all areas of life so we judge correctly.
I dare you to thoroughly investigate your attributions of both discontentment and delight. I would love to hear what you see when you zoom out from both. Please share.