Be where your feet are

Thanks to Cassandra Barney both for the painting and for the reminder to "Be where your feet are."

Light years ago, I used to walk most days from our apartment to BYU for classes. And almost everyday I would walk past an old "Shakespearean" style house that was on 800 North in Provo, just down the street from The Brick Oven. (It's still there. I'll take a picture.)

The thought loop would start something like this: "We're poor. Really poor. (I was making something like $3.35 an hour working at the MTC at the time.) I'm tired. Really tired. Too much homework. Not enough time to get it done at all, let alone with any real thought put into it. And it looks like this is how it's going to be for a long time to come. I hate that Ginger has to work. Especially since she's pregnant. Wouldn't it be great if we were rich?" This would usually be followed by a vivid imagining of those Publisher's Clearing House guys pulling up to our apartment with that oversized million-dollar check with our names on it!

Next came the equally vivid rendering of how we would spend it - so many different ways. The one constant was that house on 800 North - it somehow epitomized all of the "what ifs" that life was somehow shorting me on at the moment.

Looking back with (hopefully) some added wisdom and perspective, I confess that I still often get caught playing variations of this game. So much for added wisdom...


This thought reminds me to live in the place where I am now, rather than always looking forward to some idyllic state when everything will be perfect.

So with a brisk slap to the forehead, I pledge to simply "be where my feet are", or as a wise man so recently said, it's all about finding joy in the journey.

So be.