Learning Math and Being a Stripper

Last week I visited my family in San Diego. While there I started thinking about the different ways we can live our lives. My dad lives in a retirement community and eats dinner there. However, he has chosen to eat his other meals on his own. He values his independence highly and so even though it is difficult for him to walk a block to the public bus, take it, and go shopping, he would rather do that than start eating breakfast at his retirement community or taking the community bus to do his shopping. He is really worn out when he gets back, but prefers to be able to do things on his own schedule and in his own way. My dad has chosen to take the challenging route instead of the easy route to eating.

In contrast to this, I spent a day at the zoo with my aunt. As zoos go, it is quite nice. The animals have a beautiful environment to roam around in. All of their needs are taken care of. Yet, is this what they want or would they be happier living free with the challenge of searching for food in the wild? They don’t have the freedom to make that choice. We do. We are lucky to live in a country which allows us this freedom. How often do you exercise it? How often do you take on the satisfying challenge of creating what you want in life no matter how hard it is? How often do you take the easy route and then complain that you don’t have the life you want? It is a choice that you are making.

Sometimes we need food for our mind, and sometimes we need food for our body or spirit. Sometimes I find myself exercising my mind too much and need to do something else like pole dancing to keep from going crazy. It’s possible to do both. That’s why I loved this picture that was posted recently in a spiritual group I belong to. While we don’t offer math classes or pole dancing at Songbird, we do have lots of other wonderful options for the body, mind, and spirit.