One Beautiful Thing We’re Called to Do Right Now
Photo by Andrii Solok / Unsplash
I had a friend who used to get brutal headaches. When she could feel one coming on, she took an aspirin and then set a timer for 15 minutes.
Why the timer? I asked.
To remind me to pause and appreciate that I’m not in pain, she said. I try to savor that.
There’s a common human tendency to leap off a good thing so fast, you’d think it was hot to the touch.
We won that match, but now we’ve got to beat...
That was nice, but now the hard part is...
It’s like walking off the field after winning the 2026 World Series and saying, Now we have to win the 2027 World Series!
It’s a defensive play; we’re defending against the next obstacle. It’s also a high-risk play. It heightens the risk we’ll get exhausted, burnout, disengage. Humans can’t be powered by surmounting obstacles alone.
In a world telling us to always beware and watch our backs, it’s a radical act to take a beat and appreciate the goodness that has unfolded.
It’s why the Milwaukee Brewers drenched the locker room with champagne after winning the World Series and the Seahawks had a blowout parade after winning the Super Bowl.
Celebration is essential to the long work of good change. It refills the well, buoys the heart. Then, as Shakespeare wrote in Julius Ceasar, we are "fresh of spirit and resolved to meet all perils very constantly."
The poet Billy Collins wrote of being someone on whom nothing is lost, nothing is taken for granted.
What I love about my friend’s approach to headaches was that she didn’t take for granted that she was out of pain. She delighted in it.
So if we’re called to anything right now, it is to delight, to savor, to take in all that has transpired and let it replenish all that is dry, brittle, worn out in us.
Yes, there are obstacles ahead to be surmounted. But first, let’s mark the great goodness of the moment we find ourselves in.
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