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 | (your) lust for life |
Momalom’s Five for Ten continues—one more topic to go! After this one, I mean! Our previous topics were Courage, Happiness, and Memory. Today’s topic? Lust.
Find more five for tenners here.
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My dictionary lists three definitions for lust. The first one, now obsolete, defines lust as a personal inclination or wish. The second has to do with physical desire, and the third explains that lust is an intense longing or craving; enthusiasm or eagerness.
It’s that third definition I want to talk about today. I want to talk about the things that we’re longing to do, that we’re eager to get to, that we have so much enthusiasm for that we have to pursue them.
I once heard a talk where the speaker insisted that if you weren’t pursuing grand dreams, you were squandering your unique talents. Which sounds good, and I can agree, sort of. But I heard this while I had two very small children (aged three and zero at the time), and I simply did not have space in my life for grand dreams and epic adventures. I was excited if I managed to feed everybody and also sleep some in a twenty-four hour period.
And I think that’s really okay. I think big plans are wonderful and inspiring—but I also think there are seasons to life, and not every season lends itself well to climbing Mt. Everest or writing an experimental novel or painting the Mona Lisa or becoming America’s Next Top… well, whatever you want to be.
I think you can preserve your lust for whatever you most enjoy in life, even if it lies dormant for a while as you figure out the minutiae of changing diapers and running endless baths and inventing a bedtime routine that ends with everyone sleeping.
But here’s the thing: eventually you do figure that stuff out. After a while, even if you still have those same tasks to accomplish, they require less mental space. And that’s when those big plans can make their comeback. You might even discover new dreams, given your new perspective and experience.
I have a friend who wants to become a cake decorator. Another one hopes to open a coffee house someday. Several of my friends are writers, or artists, or crafters, and hone their skills when they can. This might not be their time, right now, today, but times change.
So I thought we might turn the comments into a dream-sharing venue this week. What are you longing to do? What plan are you eager to pursue? Or what might it be, when you come out on the other side of whatever you’re doing now?
That’s the only thing that gets me through, thinking there will be more time, eventually, for the things I’m lusting over… writing, creating, eating a meal without having help from my pint sized foodie daughter
Hang in there! The time will come…
There are so many things that come to mind. These days I yearn for uninterrupted time to read, write, and just be (without any questions or demands from my four year old).
Uninterrupted time! I like the sound of that. So luxurious… uninterrupted!
One day, I want to live on a dilapidated old farm in the hills, with a goat named Clementine, and serve as a midwife and teacher.
It sounds so rustic and serene. With wild herbs growing outside, and flowers drying overhead in the kitchen… and meandering pathways for idyllic walks… and Clementine, doing whatever goats do…
(You can see I’ve lived in the suburbs all my life.)
I long for Paris, where I may lust for everything – and possibly even get it.
Oooh-la-la! (You knew I was going to say that.)
I really like how you tackled the theme of lust and you are so right, we do get lost in the diapers and mommyland in general but there will be a time when that takes up less time and thought. I am already thinking about the medium term, when my daughter is in school. I want to do something to give back. I never want to return to the corporate world where I spent 22 years, instead I want to work for a charity or some worthy cause, maybe helping with a charity supporting the 20%+ of kids who don’t get enough to eat or the 33%+ who start school lacking basic pre-reading skills. I’m not there yet, but already starting to think.
This is a great time for thinking! You can really let your plans all percolate a while, until you come up with exactly the right thing for you. There are plenty of situations that need real solutions–they NEED us to be thinking.
Wow, this post is timely for me, and you totally just made me feel better. I’ve been feeling like I’m squandering my time and my talents, and I appreciate the reminder that sometimes you just need to take a break from trying to accomplish everything. Because sometimes you have a kid that’s about to start eating solid foods, and OH MY GOD THE LAUNDRY.
Anyway, my lust is for writing. I want to have the motivation to write something amazing, and I’m just not there yet.
You’re not squandering, you’re just in laundry season. It’s hard to be motivated in laundry season. But motivation will return! (It may not technically be the VERY NEXT season, but I bet it’s on the horizon, anyway.)
“And I think that’s really okay. I think big plans are wonderful and inspiring—but I also think there are seasons to life, and not every season lends itself well to climbing Mt. Everest”
I love that. Thinking of life as having seasons….I just took a big sigh of relief.
Thank you for this…I wrote about pursuing my big dream recently on my blog: http://wp.me/pz2FT-2t
I have to remind myself often that this–whatever “this” is at the moment–is just a season, not forever.
I love your big dream post! And I love how you’re taking concrete steps toward it now, even if it’s not quite time to jump in with both feet.
I love this idea, Melissa. I love the idea of dreams being dormant. Here are my somewhat dormant lusty hopes: I’d love to reacquaint myself with my novel. The one that’s been sitting ON my desk for a LONG time. Half written. And. I’d love to figure out a way to sell my baked goodies. Because I can make a damn good muffin and cupcake.
Oy. I just wrote you a reply and then somehow MARKED MYSELF AS SPAM, and now my comment is gone forever. I think forever. How did I even DO that?
Anyhow! What I was going to say was: Maybe after a while you might feel like working on your novel, and blogging about how it’s going so we can cheer you on. Like we’re rooting for Sarah and her three-times-this-week plan! Like that.
Travel, all of my grand dreams and desires involve travel. Will they happen? It remains to be seen, but the will is strong and so I believe they will.
I liked this a lot. Actually with two young ones of my own, (15 mos, and almost 4) I can’t get enough of reading how others feel the same. How this life is all about seasons and that eventually, with enough patience and perseverance we’ll get where we want. I need to hear that often to keep me going. So thank you for this post.
Travel! Oooh, what fun. I’m a terrible traveler really, but the idea of it seems so romantic, so carefree. *Dreamy sigh.*
Isn’t it terrible that when you speak of lust, I can think of almost nothing. I feel so everyday blessed. So damn grateful for my husband, my children, my job, my home, my parents and extended family that I can think of nothing I lust after really, except maybe more hours in the day so that I can read all of these beautiful blogs and comment and feel like I’ve done you all justice for your beautiful voices.
That seems not at all terrible to me. Contentment is not a bad thing!