Swinging From A Tree Pod

Swinging In A Tree Pod

John Paul Derryberry

After midnight on Saturday, I hit end on a zoom meeting to catch up with my friends.  We had  discussed NBA basketball for close to three hours, precisely what makes a great NBA closer, the guy who should take the last shot of the game. As I tiptoed off to bed, hoping to not wake the sleeping babies or my wife, I was already doing the math in my head about how much sleep I could get if the girls slept till 6, till 7, and if I was lucky till 8. 

Well, my oldest woke up at a smidge before 6 a.m., so the worst-case scenario for sleep came to fruition. Well, not worse case but not an ideal sleep time to be functional on a Sunday. As the day rolled along, I found myself swinging in our Tree Pod with my oldest daughter. She had her pre-nap milk, a blanket, and was nuzzled into my side while a chilly fall afternoon whirled around us. 

It's in those moments where I realize the beauty of life, even during an amped-up election season in the middle of a pandemic. We can stay connected to loved ones, interact with friends, and fight for equality. We can grow ourselves professionally and individually and find a moment to slow down and swing in a tree pod with a little two-year-old girl. There is always this weird psychological pull that we are not doing enough for somebody, anybody.  Many of us feel it daily and it forces us deep into our anxiety, our doubts, and the worse part of our thinking patterns. 

The truth for many people I serve professionally, people I supervise, I love, and support is that we all are doing so much right.  We are doing way more right than we are screwing up, and even when we screw up, it's in pursuit of doing the right thing. We just have never been allowed to think that way in our culture. It is always, do more, grow more, hit the next milestone. It's exhausting.  So as I swung in the Tree Pod with my oldest, I let go of it for a moment. I realized that last night, I stayed connected with my friends; this morning, I let my wife sleep in and woke up with the first child awake, and now I'm swinging in the Tree Pod as she drinks her milk. 

I'm tired and would love another cup of coffee to feel like I'm functioning at 100%, but I'm happy.  I'm doing life right, and that's all so many of us look for, confirmation that all the effort isn't always going to be just more effort. But the fruits of our actions are all around us if we are smart enough to take a break and look around.  We sometimes have to be willing to slow down enough to see it or swing from a Tree Pod bundled up next to my daughter to truly feel it.