Two Swings of Rest & Play

Every time I walk the labyrinth at Monarch Meadows, I dream of two swings hanging from this tree. So I asked AI to put them there for me.

A reminder of simpler times. A reminder that we must both rest and play.

This week I deleted Instagram from my phone.

It has simultaneously made my life so much better and a much bigger pain in the butt. It is the app I cannot seem to stop scrolling. It is also the app I use the most to teach the courage work and serve this community.

I could shame myself for not being strong enough to just not scroll.

Or I could be honest about the fact that these apps are engineered to keep us hooked, and I could set up the parameters I actually need to protect my own wellbeing.

Which means I also have to sit with this: it will affect my reach. It will affect my business. Not unlike the decision I made a few weeks ago to share only a one-minute clip from Courage Tuesdays on Meta, because the algorithm buries longer videos. Another choice made in the tension between what is good for me and what “the algorithm” demands.

Here is what the two swings have to do with any of this.

We were never meant to live this way. And yet, if you want to survive as an entrepreneur in this world, let alone grow, you are handed a very short list of tools, and nearly all of them are designed to keep you restless, reactive, and online.

So I am trying to find my way. The way that is healthiest and most courageous for me. To live in this world without being consumed by it.

Two swings on a giant tree overlooking a labyrinth are my answer right now. Not because I have it figured out. Because courage is not about having it figured out. It is about choosing, again and again, the life you actually want, even when the world is loudly telling you there is no time for rest, no room for play, no profit in stillness.

There is.

And I am going to keep choosing it.