When Are You at Your Best?

When do you feel most alive?

I had teaching sessions five days this week - three Perspectives classes (all in Colorado) and a Friday/Saturday Crossing Cultures workshop (in California). So, with all the prep and travel, plus the ezine and trying to keep up with email, my work-week expanded to 70 hours. Spent another six hours on school work. Today I try to rest and regroup. A sabbath?

"When are you at your best?" I asked my friend Chris.

Then I started to ponder how I'd answer that question, myself. Do you know how you'd answer it?

It's when I throw myself into something - like my work - that I feel most alive, most myself. I think work is the thing because it's the most convenient target, and because I love so much of what I do.

Just as being a bookaholic was a happy addiction for succeeding in school, and one that came with some nice side effects (e.g., I can spell)... throwing myself into my work tends to be good for my career. Except when I bite off more than I can chew. Then it's like that day when I was 14 and fell asleep in English class after staying up all night to finish reading Gone with the Wind. No, it wasn't for English class.

Now, what if what I really threw myself into was not my work, but something else? A hobby? An experience? A family? A relationship? Certainly at times I've done so. And I know what it is to lose myself and feel completely alive in prayer and worship.

I continue to be amazed by how wonderful both work and recreation/rest can be, and how often both fall short. See previous posts, Work and Rest in Heaven and "I Was Born to..."