Michigan

This is Going to be Good

/ Sloan / Leave a comment

I’ve always been good at procrastinating. Shit just gets done easier when there’s A LOT to do and a little time. When I have two jobs, class, volunteer responsibilities, and a training plan to follow I am happier, healthier, in better shape. I’m generally amazed at what I can accomplish. When I have three weeks to ‘get everything done’ nothing gets’ done.

            I sit here on a Saturday afternoon putzing around not cleaning, not packing, not getting ready to once again move my life. D-day is tomorrow and my suitcase of clothes and bag of shoes sit in ruins around my mother’s spare bedroom. After this post, I swear I’ll start the laundry and begin rolling my clothes to make them all fit as much as I’d rather kick back and not, I will, I must.

 

Back to Maryland. Thank god. Once there I won’t get crazy looks when I get carded at the bar and whip out my random Maryland driver’s license.  I’ll live near a lake, near the mountains and have work that will keep me busy and active, and hopefully another job that will keep me on my feet and social. I’ll play in the woods, paddle around the lake and explore the productive side of me that I have missed for way too long.

            Tomorrow I say goodbye to the flat lands of the mid-west, goodbye to the lake that stretches for miles and goodbye to my friends and family that have supported me. I’m excited and nervous and ready to embark on this new journey. I’m excited to say hello to the mountains, make new friends and reconnect with some old ones. This is good. This is going to be really good.

What a stranged shaped state

What a stranged shaped state

**More on where, why, and what next week. NOT back to Baltimore, I’ll give ya that much!***

Connections

/ Sloan / Leave a comment

As I loaded onto a plane the size that Ron White would describe as a pack of chewing gum, we left Oregon, our nose set for east.  I said goodbye to the mountains and was looking forward to greeting Lake Michigan and it’s cool breeze that it always has to offer. Touching down in Grand Rapids I was excited to go ‘home’, every asked me if that’s where I was going, home. This is a foreign term for me, was Michigan home? Was South West Michigan home?

My dad, since I was a kid, has always called me his Child of the Planet, I was eager to travel, always hungry to see and do and learn more. So I never learned to be at home anywhere. Where are you from? Is a question that gets blank stares from both my brother and me. This isn’t a bad thing, I wouldn’t change my nomadic childhood for anything. Not only my childhood, I’ve continued that lifestyle into my adulthood.

My trip’s purpose was to be a bridesmaid for my friend in her wedding, it just happened to be a month before I’m leaving for SE Asia, perfect timing to catch up with everyone back in Michigan. I left Oregon excited to see Michigan, I was in Michigan for a week and didn’t dream of Oregon once, didn’t think about the mountains, the trees or the crazy hippies that dance around the courtyard at the Co-op. I was completely in Michigan.

Discovering my lack of connection to Oregon was disturbing. I always figured I would love the west coast and never want to leave. Realizing that I don’t think I could move back to Michigan was also disturbing. I’m realizing as I grow up that I don’t know where I belong, I’m like that kid that eats lunch in the bathroom—no where else to go. I guess Thailand is my bathroom? (okay, bad analogy…but you get it, right?)

I’ve never felt at home, so I just keep moving in search for that connection with some place. I’ve got the wanderlust, we know that, but is it such a bad thing? I’m moving on from Oregon, maybe I’ll return, maybe I’ll leave it behind forever.

I’ve moved on Michigan for the time being, I love the lake, I love the people, but the land is flat and love high elevation. For now I guess I’m just super excited about this adventure afoot. Oh yeah, I also bought my plane ticket yesterday, so this is REALLY happening!!!!!

 

Let's get real, this is why I actually came to Michigan

Let’s get real, this is why I actually came to Michigan

Focus baby, just focus.

/ Sloan / Leave a comment

Typical conversation amongst friends:

“What do you want to do tonight?”

“Oooh, I dunno, grab a drink [at a loud bar with TVs], catch up [get drunk]?”

“Sounds good.”

 

Right? We’ve all had this conversation when trying to make time to meet up with people that we don’t see too often. It’s easy, convenient, and who doesn’t like a drink at happy hour?

 

Well, if you’re reading this you are either my friend and are just being nice (you know who you are!) or you are an active person and I bombard your Facebook or Twitter page every time I post—but somehow you get sucked back into reading this. (Thanks by the way!) We’re active people and most likely we surround ourselves with other active people.

 

I just had an extended trip back to where I lived, worked and went to school last week, I spread myself thin between Grand Rapids, Holland and St. Joe Michigan. My old roommate and I decided that instead of meeting up at dinnertime and drinking a few too many beers, we wanted to catch up over a morning coffee and then hit the matt. The yoga matt I mean! Emily has been going to Satya Yoga in Saugatuck, MI for a while and knew I’d love a class. This was the best way to begin the day and begin our day of catching up and making plans for future visits.

 

After my trip, I made plans to visit a friend in Pittsburgh, (about halfway home! Perfect!) Mid drive he texted and asked if I was into going to a Hot Yoga class that evening (heck yes! I screamed, and then promptly texted the same response back to him.) While the yoga in Saugatuck was more restorative this class at Amazing Yoga was not only amazing but was one hell of a work out! The instructor forced us to focus. Focus on our breathing, focus on our bellies, focus on the muscles we were using and focus on making sure we were using them correctly.

 

This is a new concept for me. Focus. Focus. Focus. It’s a great word. Not only am I focusing on using my muscles while I’m using them, I’m trying to focus on them to work harder and make sure I am using the correct ones to get the full effect of a run, cycle, yoga class, boxing work out…

 

Focus is a theme I’m trying to thread into the rest of my life as well. Each conversation we have is important, catching up over a beer is great, but focusing on what your friend is saying is what is going to be what’s important. These conversations we have everyday make us better friends, better companions and better people.

 

As you catch up with friends in life, move forward in your own life or make changes to, well, change, I urge you to remember to focus on what you’re doing in that moment. Work on one project at a time. Just be for a moment.

 

Whether catching up is over a beer, coffee, before you prepare to work your body. focus on what you are doing. It is so easy to be distracted by our phone, (which are now virtually computers in our pockets,) by television or by anything else that is around you.

 

I’m finding that the relationships I have are worth building and worth keeping, and the only way to accomplish both is to focus that energy to work the muscles, work the brain, and work the heart.