My Brain's Not Broken

When I watch movies, there’s a specific type of scene that always makes me jealous. Before we see our characters go off on their adventure, we sometimes see a morning routine montage – a quick-cutting, crisp shot-by-shot look at how these people get going in the morning. Maybe it’s because we know their world is about to change or because of the way it sets the scene, but that peek into a character’s life is such a great way to get to know our heroes of this story. But on occasion, it also makes me wonder – why can’t my days have more of that sort of rhythm?

Before you go and tell me that these are movies Nathan, they’re not real, let me explain. It’s not that I’m jealous of what the characters can do compared to myself. What I’m jealous of is that from what the viewer can tell, these people are used to the rhythm of their lives. Whether that’s school, work, activities with friends or doing family stuff, they seemed well in tune with what their little corner of the world is and how they play into that.

Yes, I know movies are cinematic fairy tales and all that, but there’s a small part of me that wishes I had that. I wish I was as in tune with the rhythm of my life – what I’m doing, what I believe my purpose is, and how I work together with those around me as their figure out theirs. It wasn’t until I wrote this post that I ended up learning a term I’d never seen before – the “rhythm of life.”

Whether you’re talking about the well-known song, the book by Matthew Kelly, or something else entirely, many people have insight into the rhythm of life. From how I understand it, the rhythm of life is defined as the patterns we create as people in the many areas of our lives: our lifestyle, our likes and dislikes, our work, our hobbies, our aesthetic, our culture, and so on. It’s constantly flowing and streaming from one thing we do to another, and as we get more used to habits or the things we love, we can become part of this rhythm.

But I also learned that many people go against their rhythm, or try to force it. Impatience, uneasiness or stubbornness can all get in the way of the rhythm of our lives – when we we try to force things to go how we want them to go, or be the way we want (not need, but want) them to be.

My first takeaway from all of this was to support a a relatively simple “go-with-the-flow” mindset, but I thought of something even more appropriate. Instead of going with the flow, I’m going to go with my flow – I’m going to try and pay attention to the rhythm of my life, my friends and family, the work I do and area where I live. We all have our own rhythms and flows, and the more of us that embrace those individual aspects of our lives, the better off we all are.