Tag: purpose

Blessed Interruptions

Posted on by Mike Nuckolls

I have become weary with all the memes bemoaning the year 2020. Everyone has their own perspective, I know, but when I read the memes, I instinctively recoil at the premise that this has been a year we should just write off.

 

To be sure, 2020 is one of unimaginable heartache, suffering, loss, challenge, and soul-searching. There is no established measure for the disruption imposed, the devastation wreaked, or humility required. There are many among us for whom we need to pray for strength, support wholeheartedly, and love incessantly.

 

I guess what bothers me about those 2020 memes is the implication that all is lost. While recognizing that I have been spared the worst of the times, I cannot escape the great personal fulfillment found within the chaos. I was sitting by my son when he learned to pronounce words, read sentences, and read a story. I have supported my wife as she became an online teacher. I had time to design and hand build a play set that turned out pretty darn good. I created the michaelswords.com website for my writing and this blog about purposeful life. I picked up my guitar for the first time in 10 years. I created a website for my brother’s beach place. I have had lunch nearly every day with my family. I have had time to think.

 

My friend David once told me, “Nothing unexpected or new happens in the day to day.” That really resonated with me. I relish change, have to be moving and doing, and crave new experiences. I tend to thrive when there is a little chaos. I sometimes create interruptions to keep things interesting or find better paths (apologies to those for whom I owe them).

 

The unexpected and new tend to happen in the interruptions in life by definition.  But unexpected and new doesn’t necessarily mean bad. In most instances, the good is there for the taking.

 

I have been captivated by Ricky Gervais’ Afterlife on Netflix (To those offended by vulgar language: This is not the show for you.). His character struggles with the heinous interruption of the untimely death of his wife. Through his struggle to live on, he embraces an unfiltered honesty that forms unusual and unexpected relationships, imparts wisdom to those around him, and pushes others to open their lives.

 

My response to those memes is this: Even in the worst of interruptions, there is a possibility of blessings. They are there if we look for, create, and embrace them.

 

#purpose #purposefullife #interruption #2020 #afterlife #blessings #unexpected

Fibers of Life

Posted on by Mike Nuckolls

We recently decommissioned our clothes dryer that was purchased by my grandmother in the early 1980’s. Our entire marriage, my wife has dropped hints (begged, pleaded) that it was time for a newer model but I simply ignored her. If there was a clear case of perseverance and dedication, this dryer was it. I wasn’t giving up on it since it hadn’t given up on me.

As I was dismantling it to bring it up from the basement, two perfectly spherical, inch-round lint balls dropped from within the drum tumblers. Besides amazement at their perfect shape, I was struck that over 35 years of laundry history was contained within the tightly formed balls.

Traces of the lives of my grandmother, her second husband, other family members, various roommates, my wife, and my child were within those spheres. That machine has been hauled with me to Hillsborough, Durham, and Winston-Salem, NC and Ponte Vedra Beach, FL. That dryer has been in my life through several career changes, graduate school (twice), marriage, divorce, marriage again, and fatherhood.

The fibers in those small, round balls weave the tail of my adult life.

I am not one for nostalgia. Life happens and you move on. That is one of the reasons why I decided on a blog that focuses on purpose and meaning in life. From my feet forward is where I prefer to live life.

Holding these lint balls in my hand, I realize that purpose in life is just as much about what’s behind as it is what’s ahead. I firmly believe that where I am at any given moment is necessarily tied to all of where I have been. Change one thing and I am in a very different reality.

Occasionally my thoughts do wander backward to whether I could/should/would have done something different, better, or more rewarding. That’s my cue to look around me. Though everything is never fully the way I want them to be, I think of my wife, my son, and some of the people I have encountered. Those elements of the present reveal that the past has been purposeful and is filled with meaning.

I put those lint balls in my desk drawer. I just couldn’t throw them away.

Maybe every once in a while when I am in coulda-woulda-shoulda mode, I will put them in hand and examine the fibers for all the been theres, done thats, and happenings that led to where I am.

Lesson from the Coronavirus

Posted on by Mike Nuckolls

According to Britannica, coronavirus particles measure about 120 nanometers in diameter. To put that into perspective, that means over a hundred million coronavirus particles can fit on the head of a pin. And yet, in the U.S. alone, these little guys are responsible for hundreds of thousands of infections, thousands of deaths, 95% of the country under stay-at-home orders, millions unemployed, and thousands of businesses facing crises of existence.

I don’t know about you but that certainly puts life into perspective for me. It can be frightening to think that something we cannot see, touch, or smell can have such an effect. At least until it is put under an electron microscope, the only way we even know things like this exist is by the effect they have. In other words, it is not the virus itself but its purpose that packs the punch.

It is easy sometimes to think of ourselves as insignificant in the grand scheme of life. Several weeks working, eating, sleeping, playing, and everything else from our 6/10ths of an acre in Lewisville have done nothing to dispel this notion. But what the diminutive coronavirus reveals is that significance is not measured in size, shape, state, or length of existence, but in the role played within that existence.

Once again, I am reminded that life is a much bigger picture than I can ever imagine. Rather than overwhelming my importance, I see that vastness as elevating the importance of my being intentional in the role I play. It is my hope that on the other side of this, we all seek with intentionality the role we can play in the infinite picture of life.