More New Ideas

Welcome to my new series, affectionately called “More Than This.”  This series profiles different ways that people are bringing more to their lives.

Have you ever had days when you’ve drug yourself home, fell into the couch after an exhausting day at work, and thought, “Isn’t there more to life than this?”

Well, there is!  And this series will help inspire and uncover all the different ways we can bring more to our lives.  Because when we watch other people tap into their dreams, we become inspired to resurrect ours.

To start us off, I’d like to share a small, fun way I brought more to my life this week.  I built myself a fort!

While rummaging through some old papers, I discovered pictures I had cut out of a magazine.  They were snapshots of outdoor beds.  Summer is finally here in Montana, so I thought, why not build my very own hideaway/sanctuary/coffee-sippin’/shade-lovin’ fort?  Here’s a picture:

It was easy.  I set down 2 fence posts for the frame of the bed.  Then, I snagged an old door that my husband had laying around.  I rested the door flat on the posts, so that air would prevent the mattress from getting moldy from the morning dew.  With the mattress sitting on top of the door, it felt just like a cushy bed.  Then, I added my own touch with a mosquito netting that was stashed in a closet, a wicker side table, cut flowers from our garden, and a fresh copy of O Magazine.  Walla!  My fort.

Sitting inside the mosquito netting gives this space a magical feeling.  I immediately become a kid again when I look up through the netting into the trees.  My adult worries don’t stand a chance against the glee of that little girl that still resides within.  Here’s what it looks like laying down in my fort:

I also had a “more” moment when I realized something different; something those magazine pictures don’t show you:  lots of bugs get caught at the top of the mosquito netting!  Can you see the black specs in the netting above?  Those are about a dozen bugs (flies, moths, even a Lady Bug) that got caught in the net and couldn’t find their way out.

This morning, as I was relaxing in my fort, I watched those bugs.  They were all trying desperately to escape, hopping from one point to the next.  But, they all seemed to be heading up, like they were hoping the top of the netting would open wide to set them free.  Their world was about flying.  To them, going someplace meant going up.  None of them sought the real freedom that was available only twelve inches down at the slit of the net.  They were so used to moving in one direction that they couldn’t find freedom waiting for them anywhere else.

And isn’t that just like us when we get in our daily ruts?  We keep working, keep pushing, all the while waiting for the net to open up so we can feel some freedom; when all that’s needed is to turn on our heads and look in a different direction.  Sometimes, it’s the direction that we least want to look, or where we hold the most doubt that there will be anything there for us.

We’re higher up on the evolutionary chain than those bugs, but when it comes to comfort we’re creatures of habit, just like them.

What would it take for us to find the slit in our mosquito netting?   I think we need more new ideas from new people.  My wish for you (and me) is that life would nudge us continually in new directions.  Because life knows what we want; we just don’t always know that’s what we want.

Shelby specializes in what it means to become Radically Authentic in all areas of life.  She recently completed her first book, entitled Church Picnic: How God Saved Me from My Religion. You can find out more about Shelby and read sneak peeks of her new book by cruising on over to www.shelbyhumphreys.com

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