As small children we learn to shuffle a deck of cards; struggling to make the perfect bridge, spraying cards everywhere, wondering to ourselves how the gnarled hands of our grandmothers manage such a difficult task seamlessly.
As teenagers we learn to shuffle our school schedule, friends, extracurriculars and work life; all the while believing sleep doesn't really matter, that we can catch up on it over summer on the beach.
As adults we shuffle our priorities. What tasks will I accomplish today? What will suffer because of it? What cards do I need to play in order to come out on top... We like to believe we have mastered deck manipulation, bending the cards we are dealt, moving them back and forth, forcing more and more cards into an already full hand.
My question is why? Priorities are a very real thing and I am all for shuffling the cards we are dealt to better suit our... play (shall we say). However, I feel we often miss the mark because we are so focused on each card, instead of seeing the whole hand and more times than not this causes us to loose.
Taking a step back and seeing the big picture allows us to schedule our days better, figure out our priorities, and then get back to work so that when we finish each day/week/month/year we can better see what we have actually accomplished (instead of seeing a bunch of crammed moments and missed opportunities).
As we grow older all of our shuffling will lead us to the shuffling of our feet, slowly taking on life, moment by moment, as our gnarled hands teach a younger generation the beauty of the game.
xx
