STEPHANIE MORK

For those of you who know me and don’t know that I am not going to school this year anymore–> I am not going to school this year.  I was on track to go to grad school at the University of Minnesota for public health.  A beautiful and really good program.  But after some thinking and answering some hard questions – I decided that taking this year to explore and create and learn outside the classroom had more pros than cons.  One of them being the fact that I don’t need a master’s to do some of the things that I want to do.

So – I am in that dreaded in between time.  Applying and interviewing for jobs, wondering what kinds of jobs I am even qualified for, and realizing that every choice I make at this point will have a way of shaping my future and career.

This in between time is also kind of exhilarating.  I get to create my future, build up what my life is going to be about, find new things to fall in love with and continue learning with a lust for life.  This year, once again is not what I would have expected it to be, but I am really excited about what is on the horizon.  If I don’t do anything else, I will be perfectly content with making gourmet coffee drinks and writing about nutrition all the day long.
But ya know getting another job would be nice 🙂

Upward and onward.

Check out this article that I wrote about Caribou Coffee.  Three loves merged into one: coffee, nutrition and words.

I get most of my inspiration from other peoples words.  I knew that I was a word person when I was in an art museum in Florence and I mostly just wanted to read the quotes by famous people.  The art was nice, but the words moved and impacted me.

Most recently, I was in the Chicago Cultural Center with these great big domes that were full of stained glass and were stunning [you should go there if you are ever in Chi].  But yet again I was drawn to the words written on the edges of the dome; “Books are the legacies a great genius leaves to mankind which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn.”

BYE.  What a beautiful sentence full of intricate words and thoughts.

I will talk more about books and words another time.  Anyways, the premise of this blog post comes from a book I just finished called Essentialism.  First of all I highly recommend it to anyone who feels stressed, busy, and like there are not enough hours in the day.  I promise you, there are enough hours.  God gave us 24 hours in a day for a reason, right?

Three things that I want to share with you about the main points in this book:

1. Life is like a closet.  Eventually you might have piles of things in your closet you don’t wear, don’t fit you or you don’t even like.  Why are they still in your closet?  Getting rid of old clothes is like ridding your life of the cluttered obligations and responsibilities you have built up that you don’t even know why you said yes or what purpose it serves.  If you don’t have time, don’t say yes to another ok thing or even good thing – say yes to only the best – the things that fit you, flatter you, that you love and bring you joy (this goes for clothes as well as in life).  Capsule wardrobe anyone? 

2. Being an essentialist means you recognize that you can’t do it all.  You understand that less is most definitely better because heres the thing – we can multitask, but we can’t multi focus.  Ever been talking to someone who starts texting?  Where did that conversation go?  We can’t be in one conversation here and then be thinking about another conversation happening over there.  We just can’t.  So less is better in the way that when we place our efforts on fewer things, we can devote head on focus and brainpower that we wouldn’t otherwise.

3. An essentialist enjoys the moment.  “Beware the barrenness of a busy life.” – Socrates. The question we must ask ourselves is ‘what is important right now?’  We have lists on lists for what to do next week, next year and so on – but what if we just had a list for today and then for that hour?  Learning how to prioritize and get your head out of the future can help us in the daily struggle of being present.

I’ll leave you with this:

“Life is available only in the present moment. If you abandon the present moment you cannot live the moments of your daily life deeply.”
– Thich Nhat Hanh

Today, I met a man named Cody.

He was sitting down in a very sunny spot and looked like he might be thirsty.  It was a busy corner but most people passed him by, not even acknowledging that there was a person there.

Cody is probably about my age.  He is a very talented artist and likes to draw cartoon characters and design tattoos.  Self taught artist might I add and very polite.

Why am I telling you about Cody?

I shared only a few minutes of my time with him, but I was impacted by him probably more than I impacted him.  Unfortunate circumstances have led his path on a train going the opposite direction of mine.  I desperately wanted to take him with me on my train – change the direction of his path.  Could it be as easy as giving him a new ticket?

This week as I spend some time thinking and learning about urban poverty in Chicago, I can only be thankful for the journey life has taken me on so far.  How did I get here? How did he get there? What if life circumstances put me on his train too?

Homelessness is a struggle for me.  I don’t want to give away a few dollars and feel like I did my good deed for the day.  No, it has to be more than that.  Learning that service is not about me is a funny and paradoxical lesson, but an important one.  Sure it can feel good to give a sandwich to a hungry person or a water to a thirsty one, but the person that matters here is the recipient not the giver.

Service in my eyes should be an interaction between two humans, where you are face to face, sharing time, food, or experiences that acknowledge the humanness of both people.  Humans all have the same essential desire to know and be known.

It’s impossible to reach all of the people in a city by passing out sandwiches and water bottles, but maybe if one person has an attitude shift, then it will spread like a wildfire.  Will you walk past the man on the corner? Or make eye contact with him and acknowledge him as another person – human to human.

Will you be the one to light the fire or put it out?