I woke up to a loud crash in the kitchen just after three o’clock this morning. It was my wok that hangs from a hook over my sink. It was laying in the middle of the kitchen floor just waiting for me to place it back on the hook.
I don’t believe in ghosts, but I do believe in spirits…
… and one of the spirits that energizes around my soul had something to say this morning.
I’m going to be searching for the mystery behind the fallen wok for the rest of the day.
I want to talk about what woke me up Sunday morning. It was my favorite Leonard Cohen song and no it isn’t “Hallelujah.”
I go with his song, “Bird on the Wire.” Like many Cohen songs, his version is good, but some of the covers are even better. Each artists spilling their hearts into their own interpretation of the lyrics.
From Judy Collins and Willie Nelson, to Kris Kristofferson and Alan Neville. My favorite cover is by Johnny Cash.
Every essay I read about today’s quote centers around freedom. I never put any thought into Cohen struggling with freedom in his poetic words. I always heard a struggle to find balance in life and having a voice that can be heard.
The first half of life is a fight with awkwardness. The stages of adolescence into the beginning of adulthood is a battle of sorting out our very existence.
Finding that balance between sadness and happiness. Learning how to incorporate confidence in ourselves.
Sometimes a mentor or a coach can bring the balance of life out of us. The way life nurtures us determines if we can balance on a wire. It’s a fine line between success and failure. The winds of life are constantly trying to force us from our perch. Most often we fall to the ground. It is how we get back up that determines who we are.
It could have been worse! We could have gotten electrocuted…
We have all been the drunk in the choir. The time before we find the right voice to express who we are and what we are about. Some adults never find the right note to hit and are left with a battle.
The key to a successful adulthood and a peaceful life is finding our balance and finding our voice. That is what today’s quote and the poetic words of Leonard Cohen mean to me. That is what gives us freedom on this journey.
Balance and Voice….
Today is National Cocktail Day. It kind of sucks that it falls on a Monday and it is even worse for me. I’m only a third of the way into my sixty day sabbatical. If I were to have a cocktail tonight, it would be a manhattan or a martini. When I say martini, I use the mothership of booze for mine….. gin.
Time to use my voice and balance my big ass on the tightrope of life.
Go be astonished this week
