Mediocrity and contentment

It’s Day 3 of Reverb10.

Here’s today’s prompt:

Moment.

Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year. Describe it in vivid detail (texture, smells, voices, noises, colors).
(Author: Ali Edwards)

For me, this year was filled with a few highs and a lot of mediocrity.  The university teaching center where I worked was demoted from a windowless suite of basement offices in a classroom building to a mostly-empty cubicle farm in a couple of converted veterinary lab classrooms–inside a 50-year-old “temporary” building/tin shed.  That was terribly demoralizing, but everything was made easier by the job offer I received before we made the move to the cubes.

I don’t know if there’s one moment when I felt most alive.

Mostly I remember feeling tired, frustrated, and sad.

• Tired of my old job, because we were being drained of resources and I didn’t feel my work was respected by the folks above me in the bureaucracy.
• Frustrated because we had to return a beloved dog to the SPCA.
• Physically tired all the time.
• Sad that we were leaving our friends, and our son’s, in a lovely California town.
• Worried about the effects on Pete of the move to Boise.

Honestly, I remember happy moments, but not in the sensory detail I remember the painful moments, and the long dull periods of cube-farm mediocrity, from the past year.

I suppose we’ll have to settle, then, for moments of contentment.

Strategizing with a good friend about building our consulting business, often over really great Thai food.

Sitting with Pete and our son on the edge of the deck surrounding the giant oak tree at the Davis Farmer’s Market, on a chilly but sunny morning, sharing cherry danishes and chocolate croissants, as well as cups of lemonade.

Meeting our new puppy, Jake.  (It’s hard to believe he was once so small; at 10 months old, he’s now more than 100 pounds.)

Suiting up our 5-year-old for his first experience with snow.  There were only a couple inches on the ground, but it was very, very cold out there.

Moments of teaching my public history course, when students’ ideas were sparking all over the place and conversation was lively.

Painting bright boxes and birdhouses with my son at our kitchen table in Boise.

Pete’s and my decision to relaunch TerraFirma Creative, and the day I introduced him to the revamped website.  There was a good deal of promise in that moment.

Attending my first Quaker meeting in a long time, and realizing that maybe there was space for me among the Friends.

Looking forward

I’ve already said I’m looking to ground myself, to put down roots.  I suppose another goal needs to be better recognizing those moments of contentment, and really savoring them rather than looking forward to the next thing.

That’s one thing I’m working into The Friendly Vivarium Handbook (that’s the super-secret pre-launch page; see more details here): instructions for how to find space for reflection on what you want to do in the future—but also how to recognize moments of contentment in the present and build on them.

Your turn

When did you feel most alive this year?  Or when did you feel content?  Are you taking time to recognize those moments when you’re in them?