Go Find Some Stress

No ten­sion. No growth. Single-celled organ­isms placed in per­fect envi­ron­ments will die. They have to fight against some­thing to live. Weath­ered mighty trees with scars con­tinue to endure because they have had to endure. You have to have a great respect for the lone cac­tus in a bar­ren desert. The tree that grows with its roots in gran­ite cracks and crevices is the most inspiring.

Nature has lit­tle or no respect for the easy. How can we rise to the occa­sion when there is no occa­sion? A life ded­i­cated to ease invites some of the great­est inter­nal mon­sters you will ever know (trust me on this one — been there — done that). The hap­pi­est years are the sac­ri­fi­cial ones. There is noth­ing more fun than being pit­ted against the impossible.

I wel­come down­turns in the econ­omy. I have been through many of them. They teach me how to enjoy more with less. Com­fort is tricky. It can become an anes­the­sia. The great­est com­posers and artists have the most painful lives. Genius is most often attached to severe limitations.

You can almost hear it in the wind — God say­ing, “Don’t get too com­fort­able down there.” Some­times you may hear, “Earth is just the test­ing ground. It is not your final home.”

No sense in feath­er­ing a nest that blows away in a sin­gle sea­son. The hearti­est crea­tures have to rebuild their homes annu­ally — or are in almost con­tin­ual flight between Canada and the south­ern reaches of Chile. Migra­tion is a won­der­ful adven­ture. Cre­ative cul­tures are in con­stant change.

The worst per­sonal dis­as­ters of my life have hap­pened to me when I got com­fort­able. For that rea­son (and a few oth­ers) I con­tin­u­ally seek out the adven­tures of new stress.

Go find it. Don’t make it come find you!