{"id":121,"date":"2005-11-27T15:58:00","date_gmt":"2005-11-27T15:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sbw.webfactional.com\/blog\/?p=121"},"modified":"2005-11-27T15:58:00","modified_gmt":"2005-11-27T15:58:00","slug":"in-the-desert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mlwms.com\/blog\/2005\/11\/in-the-desert\/","title":{"rendered":"in the desert"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Only in getting away do I realize just how stressful my life is at home.  Every day, here in Palm Desert, I&#8217;ve gone to the gym and been acutely aware that I didn&#8217;t have to be somewhere as soon as I was done.  I go to the gym on my lunch break during my work week, and I probably exercise my neck, craning up to see the clock, as much as any other part of my body.  <\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve been thinking about the word &#8220;stress&#8221;, as in &#8220;stress fracture&#8221; and &#8220;stress-induced breakdown&#8221; and &#8220;stress-related diseases&#8221; and I&#8217;ve decided I don&#8217;t like being aligned with the word.  I think there are better words that could be used to describe my life, only, I have to change my life so those words would apply.  Words like &#8220;fulfilling&#8221; and &#8220;rich&#8221; and &#8220;restful&#8221; and &#8220;rewarding&#8221; and &#8220;balanced&#8221;.  Clearly, some of these words fit some of the time, and I don&#8217;t need my life to be &#8220;restful&#8221; all the time, but I do need it to be &#8220;balanced&#8221; all the time.  It&#8217;s probably going to be one of my life struggles.<\/p>\n<p>But I am thankful for not just this weekend, not just the utterly delicious sheets I&#8217;ve been sleeping between, nor just the quiet, nor the opportunity to be by myself if I need to, but for absolutely everything that is going on in my life right now.  Even the hard stuff.  I feel very alive, very awake, and although many of the feelings I&#8217;m having are difficult, I know they are growing pains of a sort, and I welcome them.<\/p>\n<p>Socrates has also been hanging around my brain lately, particularly this little gem: &#8220;Let him that would move the world first move himself.&#8221;  I have a lot to move, in myself, before I can do the work I&#8217;m supposed to do, and the more self-aware I become, the longer the road stretches in front of me.  I don&#8217;t know if it&#8217;s being around my stepmom, who often jokes about her long list of regrets, but I was plagued last night when trying to fall asleep with my own list, and I wonder how tmy regrets shape my behavior.  There are those in my world who have had a certain relationship with truth- as in, some of us have chosen to bend the facts when the situation suited us- and I am no exception, and those choices haunt me.  Lies I told at 14 years old were haunting me last night, and although I don&#8217;t lie like that anymore, any sort of charade, any time I&#8217;m complicit in a show put on for the sake of those around me, it feels awfully similar to an out-and-out fabrication.  <\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve been working through this with a small circle of friends and coaches, but this &#8220;bag of tricks&#8221; I use is often very upsetting to me.  And every time I use it, it lessens the true me, and the true impact of which I&#8217;m capable.<\/p>\n<p>Well.  My hosts have returned, so I&#8217;ll have to return to this subject at a later date, but I&#8217;m hopeful I can work through all of this personal stuff without it adding to the stress of my professional life.  And that I&#8217;m able to move myself, so I can finally move the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Only in getting away do I realize just how stressful my life is at home. Every day, here in Palm Desert, I&#8217;ve gone to the gym and been acutely aware that I didn&#8217;t have to be somewhere as soon as I was done. I go to the gym on my lunch break during my work [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlwms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlwms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlwms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlwms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlwms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mlwms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlwms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlwms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlwms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}