246 Marbles
Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.
George Bernard Shaw
There was an old man who came into the restaurant two nights in a row this week. He was from Spain and he was traveling with his grown son. He had such a joyful presence; it was a pleasure to be around him. When he left the second night, I turned to one of my co-workers and said, “That is the kind of old person that I want to be.”
I’m constantly amazed that some people get heavier with age and some seem to get lighter. To use the ship metaphor again (Marble 245), it’s as if some people constantly take on more cargo and some (like the exuberant Spanish man) consistently toss over cargo that they no longer need in their hold. They travel lightly and it seems to allow them to take in each moment without judgment or points of view, just in sheer lightness of being.
I’ve been feeling heavy lately when I’ve been running. I know that I am fit enough to run with greater ease but something is dragging on me, holding me back. One day when I was running around the lighthouse on the seawall, I asked the question, “What is causing me to feel so heavy?” The answer that came was to see myself tossing unnecessary cargo away… “It’s time to get light.” The peculiar thing was, the next time I went for a run I was rounding the same corner of the seawall when I saw a man with a rope around his middle, dragging an old tire behind him, trudging along despite his cumbersome load. The sight was so strange because it was exactly how I felt. Time to lose all the old tires that prevent me from moving forward.
Abraham Lincoln once said, “Every man over forty is responsible for his own face,” (to which I would add “and his/her own energy”). I have often observed, from years in the restaurant business, that much can be hidden behind the freshness of youth, but as time gets etched on the face, so does a person’s worldview. A bitter older person cannot hide his/her bitterness from the world. It’s as if we can’t escape becoming a walking, talking portrait of Dorian Gray.
How do you want your face to read? How do you want your presence to be?
Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.
George Bernard Shaw
There was an old man who came into the restaurant two nights in a row this week. He was from Spain and he was traveling with his grown son. He had such a joyful presence; it was a pleasure to be around him. When he left the second night, I turned to one of my co-workers and said, “That is the kind of old person that I want to be.”
I’m constantly amazed that some people get heavier with age and some seem to get lighter. To use the ship metaphor again (Marble 245), it’s as if some people constantly take on more cargo and some (like the exuberant Spanish man) consistently toss over cargo that they no longer need in their hold. They travel lightly and it seems to allow them to take in each moment without judgment or points of view, just in sheer lightness of being.
I’ve been feeling heavy lately when I’ve been running. I know that I am fit enough to run with greater ease but something is dragging on me, holding me back. One day when I was running around the lighthouse on the seawall, I asked the question, “What is causing me to feel so heavy?” The answer that came was to see myself tossing unnecessary cargo away… “It’s time to get light.” The peculiar thing was, the next time I went for a run I was rounding the same corner of the seawall when I saw a man with a rope around his middle, dragging an old tire behind him, trudging along despite his cumbersome load. The sight was so strange because it was exactly how I felt. Time to lose all the old tires that prevent me from moving forward.
Abraham Lincoln once said, “Every man over forty is responsible for his own face,” (to which I would add “and his/her own energy”). I have often observed, from years in the restaurant business, that much can be hidden behind the freshness of youth, but as time gets etched on the face, so does a person’s worldview. A bitter older person cannot hide his/her bitterness from the world. It’s as if we can’t escape becoming a walking, talking portrait of Dorian Gray.
How do you want your face to read? How do you want your presence to be?
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