I was at the gym the other day, and part of the gym process is making sure I lock all of my stuff up in a locker. I used to not do this because I lived in weird little towns where no-one locked ANYTHING. Including their houses. However, my wife informed me I should probably start locking up my stuff to ensure that I still had stuff to come back to.

I begrudgingly let her win that particular battle.

The only reason this is of any import at all is because I had to buy a combination lock. Something I’ve had passing familiarity with. The first day I used it, I spent the entire gym experience coming up with mnemonics to help myself remember the three numbers required. The first one was and still is 26.

Don’t steal my stuff.

At the time, it was an easy one to remember. I was 26 at the time. So the first number was always my age. It’s been a few birthdays since then. Now, I just remember the first number being how old I used to be.

Not always the most helpful.

But, in the midst of my mental gymnastics the other day trying to remember my code, it hit me that life is moving on and shows no particular signs of stopping anytime soon. It’s an increasingly hectic, chaotic, crazy, wonderful, and intense world.

In which it’s ever harder to remember simple things. Like my freaking locker combination.

But it hit a chord in me. And it took a few days, and some serendipitous TED talks and random conversations, for me to figure out why. A theme on this blog as of late has been the craziness of everything lately. Which is a boring topic very quickly. But I’ve been stuck on it because I feel as if there’s something I’m missing in the general conversation. I got the work hard part down. But there’s another part I seem to be missing most of the time.

Cue the TED talks.

Did you know there is something called the Cloud Appreciation Society? It’s run by Gavin Pretor-Pinney. And, along with a slew of cloud related things,  it’s about legitimizing time to be quiet and let the brain wander and do ”nothing.” In this case, nothing implies a certain amount of looking straight up and finding shapes. But that’s about as close as you can get to quiet without a fair amount of work (I’m looking at you, Buddhism).

Our world is loud, plugged in, and constant. Quiet is something that almost never happens. We get really good at tuning things out, but that’s not anything near the same thing. One of the big points of the episode was the mental health benefits accrued from taking some time to find quiet during the day. Let your brain wander. Jump into introspection and relive those cringe worthy moments from high school. You might be surprised what comes up in-between all the garbage (Let’s be honest. There is always garbage).

I think that was the element I was missing. The quiet. Now, I just need to find a way to cultivate it regularly. Maybe I could take up an activity, like blogging.

Huh.

 

Now, on to the next thing.

I have a tournament TOMORROW. Which is crazy. Because if feels like the U.S. Open was both yesterday, and 17 years ago. Summer is always weird like that. Anyway, the Capitol City Open is tomorrow hosted by the wonderful and amazing Plumer Family. The cool part is this was always an event that I had to drive a bit to get to. I now live down the road. Super convenient.  Then next weekend I have a tourney in Detroit. The NAIKC with Mr. Loveless of Team Revolution. If you want to see an epic intro video, check out the website (turn your speakers down). Then, the following weekend, I have the Southern WI Open with Mr. Christensen. It’s a whole lot of competing in three weeks. Then, two weeks after that, My wife and I head to IRELAND FOR OUR HONEYMOON. 8 months after the wedding and all that.

It’s going to be a fantastic Fall, that’s for sure.