Have you ever realllllly stood in line for something? I am not talking standing in line at the grocery store or the coffee shop…I’m talking about investing some serious time.
Recently I stood in line for over an hour for a doughnut. Not for tickets for Oprah’s final show or a chance to win something….it was to buy a doughnut. A Voodoo Maple/Bacon Doughnut to be precise. Are they the best doughnuts in the world? Maybe…maybe not. Were they worth standing in line for? Definitely.
While in Portland for the GMIC Sustainable Meetings Conference, Jenise Fryatt (one of the nicest, sweetest, talented human beings I know) and I decided to use our precious free time to check out the local hotspot known as Voodoo Doughnut. After taking a short, free MAX train ride (we were traveling within the free zone….yeah!), Jenise used her telephone navigational system to locate the bakery. As we approached, we could see that a line wrapped around the building and down the side street. “Is that it?” I asked….not sure why a doughnut shop would have a line up that long on a Sunday afternoon. We stationed ourselves at the end of the line not knowing exactly how long we would be in line and whether or not it was even going to be worth our while.
Life is like that. Sometimes we wait patiently for something, not really knowing how long it will take or if it will pay off. We just have a sense that it is worth waiting for.
We don’t know how long the line actually is because all we can see is how many are directly ahead of us before the line makes a sharp turn at the corner.
Sometimes in our lives, we have to move forward on blind faith alone, knowing that something better is around the corner.
In the end, it became less about the doughnut and more about the experience... a take on "life is about the journey, not the destination". We laughed, we shared and we made friends with those around us. We even got rained on a little bit. We had no idea what awaited us, yet we bonded over the unknown – the elusive Voodoo Doughnut.
Judy
5 comments:
It was a VERY fun experience hanging out with you in line, Judy. I agree. If you stay in the moment and don't focus so much on the goal, you can really enjoy the journey and be a lot happier in the long run. In the end I got some great donuts, a cool T-Shirt, but most importantly, I made a dear friend. :)
ahhhhhhh shucks...thanks.
You know, standing in the line with no computers, no interruptions, etc we allowed ourselves to really enjoy the moment and get the most of it. In our fast paced world we are always looking two steps ahead and we sometimes miss the magic happening around us.
Judy
I can't believe the two of you were not tweeting the entire experience! And quoting tidbits from those around you as you waited! (said with heapings of sarcasm).
It is surprising how much we can enjoy things when we just accept them as they are and even take the extra step of actually trying to enjoy them...looking for the little delights.
Traci,
You make a REALLY good point! If we are always tweeting about what we are doing, are we really in the moment? Don't get me wrong, you know how much I love Twitter. But that's more my analytic mind. When I'm present-oriented, I'm connected with something else - an "intelligence" that we all share and the source of inspiration. Tweeting takes me out of that.
Sometimes we have to really work hard at staying in the present and going with the flow. When we stray from it we can miss the most amazing experiences and delights :)
I struggle with this all the time
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