The Sweet Spot
This week, I jetted out of town to the big bustling city of Orlando. Let me tell you what...In our little town I'm constantly driving behind the slowest drivers with no time constraints. Can anyone tell me what somebody's doing joy-riding through school traffic at 7:30 in the morning?!?! However. The closer I got to Orlando the faster we all went. Pretty soon I was the slow one! I mean...these people drive around like they're on fire! All of them! I think at one point I was going 55 around a traffic circle trying to pull into my hotel. Everything flying in the floorboard and me praying I wasn't going to get rear-ended. Lord help us all!
There was a point while I was driving on the interstate, Starbucks Chai Latte in hand, the perfect song on the radio, beautiful clear sky right after a rain, a mass of cars ahead of me and a mass of cars behind me...and I was the only car for a quarter mile in the gap. It was like I had found this magical spot suspended in space and time that was perfect...it was the sweet spot.
After a few minutes, the moment had passed. Cars began rushing past me again, the songs on the radio went downhill fast, I ran out of chai and my neck started hurting. But that moment stuck with me. It reminded me of those times in my life when for a few moments or maybe even days I fell into that sweet spot where everything seemed like it couldn't get any better.
You know what makes those spots even sweeter? The letdowns and failures. The times your dreams don't work out and it doesn't seem like you'll ever make it out...or the daily barrage of one more thing going wrong. It gets exhausting!! It's those failure and hard times, crappy days that turn into weeks and months and years, that make you more aware or more gracious for the good stuff that happens. One day, maybe even years later, you wake up and you realize you made it through. Maybe you got a little beat up. Maybe you have some scars to show for it. Maybe life looks different than you thought it would. Maybe you gained a little bit of wisdom and some street smarts along the way. Instead of feeling depressed and defeated, you start to have some real confidence in your ability to fail...and learn...and start over...and win.
There's one caveat to the sweet spot. It usually sneaks up on you. I don't think it's something you can force into happening, but maybe the key is being aware and noticing when it hits you. Did you know there's a "sweet spot" on a bat? My husband, Patrick, loves baseball and he loves to watch and stalk...ahem, I mean research athletes that make hitting look easy. He says when you hit a home run you've hit the ball with the sweet spot of the bat and it's effortless, and you know it's gone. If you think about it, those guys have no distractions, total focus and energy on living in that moment, and then sometimes, bam. They hit the sweet spot and it flies, and it's effortless. I wonder, if we reduce the distractions and focus on the good things, could we notice that sweet spot a little more often in our own lives? Wanna try?
xoxo
~j
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