Glory Days
Feb 14, 2022
Do you ever wonder why Al Bundy or Uncle Rico were stuck in the past remembering and reliving their high school football days? By the way, both of those characters are hilarious, if you like to laugh. But they are also representatives of most of us. We like to remember our Glory Days. Like Uncle Rico, many of us get stuck there and even imagine that they were better than they actually were. Why is that?
I think it’s because for many of us those were the days we were living. And when I say living, I mean moving and engaging in life. We were playing sports, taking chances, being curious, finding adventures - we were bold enough to flex and bend our comfort zones. And one of the reasons we were able to do this, perhaps the same reason we love to remember these Glory Days, is that we felt “good.”
It feels good to move well, with speed and power. It feels good to get a rush when you walk up to a girl and ask if she would like to dance. It feels good to learn how to drive a car and discover freedom. Back then, life was an adventure, and it feels very good to live in an adventure.
And then we stop. Most of us…
We slow down, not because we get older, but because we stop moving as much. We get comfortable, the thrill of taking chances gets erased by the safety of not being rejected. We settle, instead of reaching for what we want, we shrug and deal with what we have. And in turn, we no longer feel good, we feel “there.” There, or here, is no way to live.
"How are you doing?"
"I’m here…"
And that is why our Glory Days seem so wonderful because they were.
And that is why our “there-ness” or “here-ness” is so blah, we are no longer engaging, no longer moving, no longer reaching for the thrill of possibility.
And that’s a problem. We were never created to look back at our Glory Days. In fact, we were created to make every day glorious. We are designed to move, to laugh, to be curious, to question, to solve, to reach, to climb for “more.” We are made to take chances on possibilities and not rest on certainties. Certainty is a lie, and so is the safety it promises. But possibility is full of truth and adventure.
The point is, for many of us, our youth was an amazing time because we were actually engaged in living and we felt wonderful. But again, that’s the design. That is what we should be doing today and that is how we should be feeling now. We are made to feel wonderful, to have energy, to have hope, and to laugh. More importantly, we are made to share all of this with everyone around us.
And we can.
All we have to do is engage in life.
Breathe. Move. Smile. Wonder. Listen. Learn. Grow. Give.
Seriously, deliberately engage in breathing and moving every day. Spend five minutes feeling the air fill your body. Learn to appreciate it, learn to let it energize you. Spend five to ten minutes rolling and rocking on the floor or your bed every day. Go for a walk every single day. Smile at everyone you see - trust me, it feels great. Wonder about things, be curious. Listen to others when they talk so you can hear and understand. Learn from every moment. Reach, stretch yourself, and Grow. And, most importantly, give yourself away. Pour yourself out and into others. Lift them, help them, hug them, encourage them. It’s the most wonderful feeling in the world and you were made for it.
That’s the design.
Be Glorious.
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