If you grew up in the early computer era of the 90’s or 2000’s, you are all too familiar with the problems that came along with early home computers. The biggest aggravation – for me, personally – with these computers was if you clicked one too many times or things too fast, they would go static. It seemed like hours would go by while you waited for the processor to catch up with the information request. If you were this lucky, you remember the old buffering ring. When you’d click on a video and the internet capabilities couldn’t keep up with the data load, the ring would pop up and there, you’d sit, waiting for it to stop spinning so that you could watch whatever music video it was you wanted to see. In fact, that ring was so famously dreaded that it went on to be the source of comedy in tv shows and film.
There are days that I feel like one of those early gen home computers. I’m sure you’ve experienced it at some point. You have all of these demands and responsibilities that come crashing down on you all at once. I know it happens for me more often than not. There are days where I walk around seeing this eternal buffering ring, waiting for my processor to kick in and weed through all of the data to move me in one direction or the other. If you’re from the South, I feel stuck, like a vehicle in a mud pit, engine revving, tires spinning, going nowhere.
Life is like that, sometimes. In the world today, it is easy to find yourself bogged down by information and responsibilities and projects, etc.. In those times, I have to remind myself of the Lao Tzu quote, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.” That serves to remind me that this journey that I am on is long and arduous, but it is nothing more than a series of steps. So all of that information, responsibilities and everything else, are steps that must be taken on my journey. One at a time.
