Tag Archives: Creative Writing

Wealth of Water

Posted on by under The Edison Project Blog, Uncategorized

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Yesterday my day concluded with a trip to the swimming pool with my family.  My children, 3 and 2, are huge fans of the water, and so we have had a yearly membership to our neighborhood pool for the past 3 summers.  Both my wife and I have always loved the water.  We spend as much time in or on it as we can.  From fishing on my parents’ pontoon boat on Lake Anna, to casual jaunts around the lake or just swimming off the dock, we try to regularly spend time there.  We also schedule a few trips down to the beach every summer to fill our quota of saltwater exposure.  On the off-chance we get to go on a vacation, either as a nuclear family, or as an extended one; we always seize that opportunity.  But the pool suffices for weekdays and the weekends where we are at home base.  It brings immeasurable happiness to all of us.  Yesterday was no different.

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My children aren’t yet independent swimmers, so we outfit them with life preservers and launch ourselves into the shallow end.  As they steadily gain confidence, we go from jumping from the top step, to jumping off the edge of the pool.  Reflecting on the progress they make in a single day is good enough to make it a list worth talking about.   What’s more, is the relaxation is brings to us as a unit.  Aside from my youngest being too headstrong and curious to resist the rule of no running around the pool, the water provides us an opportunity to enjoy the effect buoyancy has on our bodies in unison.  The feeling you get when you immerse yourself in water, its fluidity, the comfortable transition from 88 and muggy to 78 and weightless is truly transformative.  Add to that the combination of warm sun, music and games where “Daddy is a shark” and you have one of the most simplified forms of bliss that exists on the planet. 

 

At a period in our lives where both my wife and I work, at a minimum, 50 hours a week, we feel the joy all the greater.  The work at home with two toddlers is never done.  There’s not yet help with the dishes or the laundry or the crayon that mysteriously jumped from the paper to the wall.  There’s the dog to keep walked and the lawn to keep trimmed.  There’s our room and the kids room and the home office and the playroom still to be done, even when you’ve wrapped up the dishes for the night.  There’s overflow work that needs to be analyzed and mapped out for the following day.  There’s groceries to buy and bills to pay.  These are regular distractions that nearly every adult, parent or not, has to face on a daily basis.  These tasks don’t just sap happiness; they blindfold us to it.  When it all seems too much, the only natural way to manage the mountain of maintenance is to put on the blinders and wade through it.  The water separates us from these tasks.  We cannot accomplish any of these things while swimming.  We are forced to take a break from the daily, weekly and monthly to-dos and focus solely on our presence in the water.  When you think about it, it’s probably the only place people my age and younger don’t regularly strap their phone to their palm.  Try as companies might to develop technology and cases to shield phones from the water, I’ve yet to meet a person to deliberately immerse their phone in the water.  All of this builds a case for the sanctity of water.  For the spiritual and natural connection we experience while in or beside it.  We are better people in it; less focused on distraction and more present to guide our children in navigating its challenges.  Less likely to feel burdened while we are buoyed by its force on us.

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I’ve yet to find another commonly accessible feature that is more regularly a place of rest, relaxation, and recharging.  I wonder if there might be something out there that you find more comforting or inspiring? In my ever-increasing search for locations and experiences that lend themselves regularly to happiness, I’d love to hear insights on what you might do on or near the water that benefits your happiness.  I’d love to hear if there are alternative locations or experiences you commit yourselves to that are readily available.  Certainly, I welcome any suggestions, recommendations, tips or advice that I or anyone else might benefit from.

 

Yours in the continued Pursuit of Happiness,

Will O’Connor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Edison Project: Stepping Onto the Road

Posted on by under The Edison Project Blog

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Happiness as a Journey: The Comings and Goings to Home

I’ve been scanning the far reaches of my brain, and the internet today in preparation for my preliminary launch of The Edison Project.  Determined to start my journey today, I looked at a “On This Date in History” page and was delighted to see that, (Fictionally) on this date, in 1342, Bilbo Baggins returned to Bag-End after his epic journey through middle earth to rid the world of the terror of Smaug.  The Hobbit was one of my favorite books as a child.  It provided me with adventure, intrigue, just the right amount of fear, and happiness in the end that Bilbo and the rest of his company was successful in their mission.  Bilbo is a lesson to all the hidden blessings that can be found in being disadvantaged.  Dismissed at first for his stature, Bilbo was a critical component of this story.  He was utilized on missions where others would not have been capable and succeeded not in spite of his size; often it was because of it.

So too, are we the disadvantaged.  Be it in one way or another; we are counted out of contention in pursuit of our goals for one attribute or another that disqualifies us from being the ideal candidate.  Our resume, our schedule demands, our intelligence against the perceived minimum required IQ to accomplish such lofty goals.  No matter what they are, none of us are alone in the feeling that we are battling not just our challenges, but the odds others have stacked against us.  But it is in the pursuit of these goals that we find we are able to analyze our challenges and surmount them in various ways.  Diligence, persistence, resourcefulness – these are among only a few of the many talents we can hone just through effort that can propel us beyond the limits we initially set for ourselves.  There is no doubt that Bilbo saw many of these attributes sharpened along the way.  It is in his return to the Shire that he can finally come apart and recuperate from his taxing journey – but we also see something else after the culmination of his trek.  We find Bilbo, years later, to be spiteful of the lack of further adventure in his life.  He jokes about wanting to be left alone; but it is to brood about, not to rest and relax.  Happiness, for many of us, is directly tied to the continuation of experiencing life on the edge.  For each of us, that edge is different.  Some create an edge that is very literally untraveled by those before them.  Others prefer slightly less rare, but equally new adventures, that require growth, perseverance, spiritual interconnectedness and reliance upon community, or family.  These are accomplished in various ways, with mixed results, often requiring we start back again from the beginning, or to resume the journey after its been too long since last we honestly put forth the effort.

Happiness, for me, is an intersection of numerous variables.  My project is about the multitude of ways I’ve been able to find happiness, in hopes its conjures new ways, and provides sustenance to my soul at a depth I’ve never before encountered.  In the experiments to come, I hope to write about my family, my faith, my country, my friends, my work, my hobbies and my dreams.  I hope to come across new topics to determine more fully from where I derive my happiness, in hopes that I can manufacture those opportunities with greater frequency.  I hope to sponsor a space where others can spend some time to think and challenge themselves, and in turn, me.  I hope to foster discussion in a positive direction and I hope to sustain this project with new and innovative measures towards the end of creating and maintaining the happiest life I could possible experience.  I hope to have you join me on this quest.  May we return home together – but only for as long as we need to recover before beginning our next adventure.

Yours in Pursuit of Happiness,

Will O’Connor