"Let 'em shine on." - John Legend and The Roots, Shine
On the season premiere of Grey's Anatomy last night, Meredith's closing narration kicked off with something to the effect of "When we say 'people don't change,' it drives scientists crazy. In fact, change is literally the one constant in science." Fitting that that reminder came last night right after being informed of a major and unexpected (at least by me) change.
I embrace change. I take advantage of changes. I welcome our fluctuating overlords. But, as I noted last week, with just so much change happening, I'm finding myself searching for stability agents.
Today, I'm seeing the value of the routine. Leo Babauta at Zen Habits wrote just yesterday (i think) about his simplified morning routine:
- Sit. I wake up and start the coffeemaker, drink a glass of water, then sit on a small pillow. I just sit, and focus on my breathing. You don’t have to meditate — sitting still, contemplating, taking in the world, is a beautiful thing.
- Read. I read a book. The paper kind, that doesn’t require electricity. I like reading with no distractions. I’ll read for about half an hour to an hour.
- Write. Before I check email or Twitter or read my feeds, I sit down and write. It doesn’t matter what — a chapter for my new book, a blog post, answers to an interview someone emailed me, anything. I just write, without distractions.
I tried that this morning with some adjustments and some failures of focus. After a relatively early to bed night, I woke up early with work on the brain, revisiting some of yesterday's key conversations and envisioning the ones I hope to have today in my dreams (although I imagine they won't be happening outdoors near a babbling creek or on a college campus). Getting up and just sitting down for a bit to settle my active mind was nice. I swapped Leo's water and coffee for a little OJ but taking this deliberate moment felt very right.
Before I could get to the reading, though, I went to the music. Kanye West's Runaway was in my head and so I had a toast for the douchebags and assholes before the sun rose. I also had a shower and, perhaps appropriately, started listening to John Legend and The Roots's Wake Up for the first time. The shower and being dressed before getting lost online is actually really important for me. I usually am awake 2 or 3 hours before I head into the office and often I'm still scrambling to get ready at then end of my morning. That's lame. Today that won't happen.
Speaking of the internet, though, I couldn't stop myself -- I tweeted. I checked friendfeed briefly. And then I checked myself. I grabbed my book, went back to my chair and read for a good bit. A couple of chapters of L.A. Noir which, so far, is not nearly as compelling as A Bright and Guilty Place was even as it follows a similar narrative style (the tale of two men, one light, one dark, or maybe not, in the city of angels) but which I plan to finish.
And then, finally, to here. In case you haven't noticed, I've been having a bit of a blog revivalist movement of my own lately. I'm trying to write daily. To tell stories. I don't know what was the spark, maybe it was our adventures at Taste of Beverly Hills or watching people tell their stories at Lit Crawl or going through my Vox archives and remembering how much I enjoy putting words together. How much I like having a record of what matters to me and why. How much writing, hell, blogging brings to my life.
So, here we are, a routine. It's 7am and all I have left to do this morning is find some breakfast. Maybe I'll take some of this deliberateness and focus into the rest of my day. And maybe we'll do it all again tomorrow.
That would be a change.