In the Moment--Multi-tasking is not the Way to Enjoy Life to its Fullest

I wrote last week about the mediocre racquetball that I have been playing lately in the article Racquetball Blues--Going Through Life With Cement Overshoes. I reference that item because something came through my email yesterday which directly related to my recent experience.

Before I read that item yesterday, I had already treated myself to three of the best games of racquetball that I have put together in a long time. Were they perfect, by no means--in two of the games I surrendered leads of 11 and 8 points--but, after the article came across my email, I began to make sense of what happened yesterday and what has been going on in so many areas of my life.

The article is Living Consciously and it was published in a blog sponsored by Flying magazine. Please note when you read the article on the blog that the letter cited was written by a close associate and it was he who sent me the link to the blog.

The article is a quick read--probably quicker than this blog entry will be, and I recommend reading the entire article to fully appreciate the context. But I have extracted here a few paragraphs that describe the "aha moment" I stumbled across yesterday thanks to Peter.

The skill or behavior Peter was describing, which Dr. Musgrave exhibited so well, is sometimes known as "living consciously." It's something I've written about before in the pages of Flying, and something I think the act of flying a small airplane encourages more than many other activities in our daily life. It describes the attempt to be fully present in every activity we undertake, from washing our hand, to pre-flighting an airplane, to walking down the street.

To be fully present in any given moment requires full attention to the task in hand, and an effort to not just look, but see, feel, and be aware of all the sights, sensations, and events within reach of our senses. Which is to say, it's the antithesis of multi-tasking … which also means it's a skill that is becoming rarer and rarer in the world.

But as the summer flying season, with all its beauty, warmth, landscape scents and gentle breezes begins … it's worth taking a moment to consider Dr. Musgrave's approach to a simple vanilla ice cream cone. On your next flight, make an effort to be that conscious as you pre-flight. Of the feel of the metal latches as you open them, and the distinctive scent of the avgas. The unrolling of the canopy cover. The breeze and shade beneath the wings. The warmth of the summer sun, the energy in that moment of lift-off … the treasure of being alive, and in the air, with all the freedom, sights, and sensation it affords.

I realized that my mind has been so full of things, that I haven't been able to focus on the task at hand--whether a project at work, a racquetball game, or engaging in conversation at home. There is too much "swirl" going on to allow me to fully focus on the "now" while not being concerned about the "later."

Yesterday morning, I realized as I read the blog, when I was playing racquetball well the only thing I was focusing on was racquetball. I was in the zone. I wasn't thinking about the dozens of meetings and tasks waiting for me at work and then around the house later in the day. When I started to lose focus--I began to lose the games. I remember thinking about things like the tension of the strings on my racket, the weather, the weekend, the holiday. As I was able to clear these things from my mind and refocus on the game--the tide turned.

I'm going to try to apply this concept a bit more to my everyday life and see if not only my performance, but my enthusiasm improve. Truly, I do not need to multi-task all the time. I do a lot of multi-tasking at work because it goes with my job--I'm kind of into everything and need to stir stuff up when it begins to languish. But in my personal life, at least, I should be able to take time to focus.

I know I focus and notice life sometimes--and I have recorded some of those fleeting moments here in my blog--The Sunlight in my Eyes from March comes to mind.

But they are rare.

And so, as an effort to improve my quality of life by resisting the temptation to multi-task, I have determined that I will no longer try to change my clothes while talking on the phone! Also--when I am on the beach in two weeks--I will be on the beach and not somewhere else in my mind.

And I know I will soon think of other things to help speed me along this path to taking back control and enjoyment from life.

Canada Day 2010 - Neighbor to the North

My friends know that sometimes I break into a chorus of 'O Canada' when we are doing something and it has a Canadian slant to it. Of course one or our best friends is of Canadian descent, so that often helps me to find a reason to regail her with a little bit of O Canada, too. And it usually beings a smile to her face when I do it.

Today is Canada Day and I want to take a moment to celebrate our sane and sensible neighbor to the north. We fellow North Americans should take a moment to pause and recognize our close ties to Canada and celebrate with them their great country.

While the recent riots at the G20 summit were a blot on the sensibility of Canadians as a whole--that was in my mind an aberration.

In honor of Canada Day, I offer here the words to their national anthem--which I hear at hockey games and baseball games when Canadian teams are competing. Of course, we also heard it played a lot during the recent Winter Olympics. Most of us USA bound people probably don't take the time to even listen the words of O Canada--but as national anthems of the world go, I find this one to be one of the best and most "sing-able."

And so, in honor of our neighbor to the north and in honor of the longest undefended frontier between two nations in the world I present the words to O Canada, and if you click the link, you can hear it, too.

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.

With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!

From far and wide, O Canada,
we stand on guard for thee.

God keep our land glorious and free!

O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

Oil Spill--Ecological Suicide

The oil is still pouring into the Gulf--and yet the story has all but dropped out of the news.

In classic American style--we've grown bored of the story and so our interest has waned while the environmental damage continues to mount at rates we cannot comprehend.

There is a great website called Google Crisis Response - Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill which I encourage you to check out.

It continues to document the extent of the oil spill and the efforts to contain it--which are largely or completely ineffective.

And we have done just as BP had hoped we'd do--totally begun to ignore the damage and the disaster.

We must not allow ourselves to fall into the trap of accepting the activity because we are bored with hearing about it.

It is still happening.

Here is something I found just this morning about the disaster:

The article is at Is BP Burning Sea Turtles Alive? and is reported by Fox Tampa.

VENICE, La. - A boat captain working to rescue sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico says he has seen BP ships burning sea turtles and other wildlife alive.

Captain Mike Ellis said in an interview posted on You Tube that the boats are conducting controlled burns to get rid of the oil.

"They drag a boom between two shrimp boats and whatever gets caught between the two boats, they circle it up and catch it on fire. Once the turtles are in there, they can’t get out," Ellis said.

Get this--over 82 MILLION gallons of oil have been released into the Gulf so far and rising daily! Bet you didn't know that did ya? My swimming pool is 40 thousand gallons. This would be more than 2050 of my swimming pools full of oil!

Did you know the Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons of oil? We are already at a spill 8 times larger than the Exxon Valdez.

Congress need to get their heads up and get into the game. Total ecological destruction is being allowed to occur. AND--there is no assurance that BP's plan to plug the well with cement (which is supposed to occur in August) will work either.

What do we do?

1. Write Congress and let them know how concerned we are. Advise your senators and representatives in Congress that we expect action and not to trust BP, because so far--they have been wrong at every juncture.

2.Stop buying BP products--anything from BP just to make a point.

3. Don't let this story drop from the news. Keep reading and become informed. Keep pushing for answers.

They're Back! The Return of P&T

The dynamic couple who honeymooned in one of my favorite places in the world have returned home.

Awesome.

I had the pleasure of retrieving them from the airport early Monday morning, so that I could be among the first to welcome them back to Maryland and life as a married couple.

I can report, their big cat, Gus, was enthusiastically happy to greet them.

And their dive gear bag was really heavy.

It was fun that as they shared private time together in Key West, they also regularly checked in with the family to let us know how they were doing. It was kinda fun to hear of their adventures, their room upgrade, and the fun they had driving the rented Mustang convertible.

Key West is such an awesome town and there is always something to see and do.

And it seems they did a lot and had a great time. Just like they were supposed to do.

What a great way to start out a marriage--with some great memories upon which to build more great memories.

I guess I'm a hopeless romantic in wishing that the grind of everyday life doesn't get them so bogged down that they can't remember what a great foundation they have as they set out on the journey that is marriage.

Welcome home guys--

Monday Musings - June 28, 2010

1. USA Soccer lost--but they had a great run. 32 teams showed up for the World Cup and 31 of them are going to go as losers.

2. The Orioles have a four game winning streak! The longest of the season.

3. Another hot weekend and Sunday family day was memorable again because everyone was there.

4. Isn't it funny how sometimes you look forward to going on vacation but then at some point you begin to look forward to coming home again?

5. Why are commitments a convenient excuse to not to do the things that we should be doing?

6. When does the honeymoon really end? And why does it need to ever end?

7. Next weekend is the Independence Day holiday weekend! Lights and fireworks! What could be better?

8. We need some new movies to be released at the theaters. I haven't been to a movie in a while and I don't think I'm missing anything.

Hydrangea Morning

Another hot, summer day is starting.

The hydrangea are in full bloom in front of the house--standing tall against the summer sun and heat.

Filling our vision with a multitude of blooms.

The grass has slowed its growth as the heat and dryness of the summer have set in. I didn't need to even mow this past week.

Last evening, as night fell, the lightening bugs provided a spectacle of lights high in the canopy of trees that surround the back yard and pool.

Their lights rivaled that of the stars--but of course--their lights were only transient compared to the steady lights of those suns so far away.

Days like this are what I wait for during those long, cold, bleak days of winter--which will all too soon return. So I will enjoy these days--riding in the convertible with the top down and my hair blowing in the wind.

Soccer Saturday

Taking a break from the rest of the crises in the world--we will celebrate Soccer Saturday today.

USA Soccer is in the round of 16 for only the 3rd time since 1930.

There is a good chance they will move on for another game--but this is the elimination round and some of the powerhouses in the world are missing: Italy and France for instance.

Regardless of the outcome later today--this has been a great run. Winning the group over England and playing hard against every team.

For those of you who don't understand the extra motivation that Team USA has today for the game, I provide this excerpt from a New York Times article about what happened during the 2006 World Cup and last time these two teams met:

Only four years ago, these two teams met in what amounted to an elimination game at Germany ‘06, a final group-stage match both teams needed to win in order to be certain of advancement, especially the Americans, who had only 1 point going in. But they were beaten, 2-1, by a Ghana team that defied all the tired cliches about African naivete on the international stage.

The USA did not make the round of 16 as a result of that game.

So there is a measure of revenge--which hopefully will provide our team with that extra motivation to not let it happen again.

So win or lose--

U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A Soccer Rules!

Patrick and Tina Wedding Links

This is just a quick entry to help reference links to Patrick and Tina's wedding pictures:

My Picasa album: http://picasaweb.google.com/rjdoan/2010Wedding#

Theresa Choi (the photographer) blog:
http://www.theresachoi.com/blog/christina-patrick-pier-v-baltimore-wedding-2/

From the honeymoon:
The Vandenberg

Patrick's picture


Wedding Pictures

Wedding

Collection of pictures

Playing on Foreign Soil: USA Soccer vs the US Military

The DoD and the US military need to take a page out of USA Soccer's handbook about playing away games.

Wednesday saw the two entities at completely opposite ends of the spectrum--USA Soccer celebrating a never-say-never victory over a really tough opponent in a do-or-die situation and the US military with disgrace on its face and a combat commander being fired for gross insubordination of the order of Douglas MacArthur.

USA Soccer never quit as they faced a gritty Algerian team. In fact, as I have been watching the other matches in the World Cup, I have been amazed how easily some of the players are hurt and removed form the games. The US team was playing at the end of the game with two players who required stitches after the game to close wounds sustained during the game. And in a testament to the "it ain't over until it's over" spirit which resides in all Americans--they won the match during stoppage time when hope seemed lost.

I celebrated wildly--maybe a too bit wildly, at work.

Conversely, the US military was portraying everything that is wrong with the current crop of combat leadership--unbridled contempt for our civilian leadership. The actions of GEN McChrystal and his staff are a blot on the heroism and honor of those of us who have served in the US military. He should be fired, as he was, and sent home in disgrace. And his staff--all of it, should be replaced because they are part of a culture of contempt that cannot be allowed to exist in the military.

I am reminded of a scene from my favorite movie "Patton" where the new commanding general , Patton, of the US II Corps in Africa arrives at his command post shortly after the disaster at Kasserine Pass. In the movie, one sees a command staff that is disorganized and without basic adherence to fundamental appearance and discipline. Patton goes on a tear and reestablishes discipline almost instantly. And that is what the US Forces in Afghanistan need--a thorough housecleaning and adherence to good conduct and discipline.


So, USA Soccer--winning in South Africa against the odds when the game seemed hopeless and after being denied a good goal or the US military in Afghanistan--disgraced by their senior leader and his staff and complaining they cannot win the war in Afghanistan which, by the way, officially became the longest running war in the history of the United States.

U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A Soccer Rules!

Racquetball Blues--Going Through Life with Cement Overshoes

I've been playing some really mediocre racquetball lately. That is different than just losing--because even when I win games, I know that I'm usually not playing solid racquetball and instead I am relying on my experience and craftiness to overcome large deficits.

Sometimes it works--but more often, it falls short.

I accept losing when I know I've played hard and good--in fact those are some of the best matches when both players have their A games.

Lately, all I'm bringing is my C minus game. And yeah--I lost a match the other night I wanted to win but definitely got outplayed in.

It is like I'm moving in slow motion through not only the game--but sometimes through life.

Perhaps it is loss of focus, but I just don't feel that emotional charge to control either the racquetball game or some of the events in life--I'm just reacting and then often slowly.


I know I'm just in one of those phases--and hopefully I'll snap out of it soon.

I know some beach time is coming in a couple of weeks and that always recharges my batteries.

I'd like to leave the cement overshoes at the beach--or better, leave them offshore to become part of an artificial reef.

Today--I'll slog it out in the trenches. Taking on each action or task as it comes counting the days until the scenery changes to sand and palm trees. That would be 21 days--but then who is counting.

I guess I am.