Insidious Adaptation

Play. I had half a mind to leave the page blank, allow for artistic interpretation to the emptiness that very few things offer these days. To have some sentence at the end about what to make of your own blank page, your own life's purpose etc. However, I decided instead to provoke. When was the last time you allowed the mind to wander? When was the last time you didn't stop or try to control the thoughts? When was the last time you were allowed to actually daydream? I feel sometimes that the phone, the thumbprint, the scroll, the 5-10 minutes wasted, and then the rush to catch back up on work or be present with children, or try to catch back up on the conversation you were missing, prevents us from doing so. I feel as though the mind's ability to be, and explore, no longer exists as it once has. Now, sitting, dreaming, and getting nothing accomplished are not warranted in this world either, nor would that be fulfilling, but everything in the world now seems a way to...

(beep) (beep) (beep) Hurry, where is that button, I don't want to wake the house up.  My first thought of the day is about how I inconvenience the others in the house. My wife lays sleeping next to me even though I would assume she heard. My daughter in the next room, sleeping, as indicated to me by the lack of a lit-up screen notifying me of her every move. I check the phone. The light of the screen pierces my eyes. An abrasion that my logical mind reminds me is bad for me. Nonetheless. Jeeze, she moves around so much. My thoughts as I look to the notifications stacked on my screen from throughout the night. I sit up on the side of the bed, say my prayers for the day and a brief thought enters my head of how if my wife did wake up, she would see me just sitting here, probably looking still asleep. Or, maybe she knows by now. As the feet hit the floor, the debate is over. I am up now. The thick carpet supports my sore feet. The muscles in the legs all get the...

The title, I feel like I came up with by myself, but there has to have been an idea like this before? Please tell me that someone somewhere has taken a step back, away from the crowds of bootcampers, the various cross-fit exercises, the supplements, the diet, all of it, and ask, why? Not just in why am I doing this, but, more specifically, why this? Why this workout, why this supplement, why this food? All necessary for an efficient, goal-driven lifestyle. I figure if you are going to take the time to invest in your overall wellness, you must have taken consideration in what kind of wellness? When we went to school, or started a career, did we just say I need a job, and stop there? We may have at first, like eating carrots instead of a Butterfinger or running instead of sitting, but time advances, and so should you. It's OK to ask questions when it comes to where you choose to spend your time. It is OK to ask why you should be eating certain foods, or less of others. It is OK...

Shame seeping into the brain, like a molasses being poured over a rotten apple, slowly the tainted fruit engulfed in a brown, sticky substance no longer seen, for now it is a mere blob of that which consumed it. The treachery of the feeling, enough to fuel poor decisions in life to try and escape, avoid, compensate even. The feeling was there upon waking up, like it existed before my conscious mind did, like it knew of the world and it was here to show me how hard it was going to make this place.  Since the dawn of fallen man, shame has existed to remind us of our overall wicked ways. In Genesis 3:7, Adam and Eve cover themselves with fig leaves to indicate a shame from the Lord for going against what he asked. Shame is supposed to be a benefit in some way, for all emotions are. If we are living with inefficient emotions, then is this not like the digestive system deciding not to do its job, only to have the food sit, rot, producing life-threatening situations? Our bodies are t...