Comfort Zone

I'm sittin' on the rooftop at a house in Santa Barbara.  The ocean is amazing!  The wind has just the slightest bite of cold that's pretty much cancelled out from the hot coffee that I'm sipping. I'm literally watching a plane flying really low - only a couple hundred feet above the water - a huge plane - passing by to some unknown destination. Amazing.

It's pretty quiet, except for the birds chirping and occasional car driving by.  I can see waves roll toward the beach through the trees.  An unnatural looking oil rig sits off the coast.  Behind me are mountains.  Huge mountains.  There are palm trees and unknown types of coastal trees all around.  The sun is high in the sky - making this computer screen hard to see.

I wonder if stepping outside our "normal' heightens our senses.  I normally don't notice anything.  Today is a new day - a new place - a new adventure.  And I'm noticing things.

I think I strive for comfortable too much.  Some of my story could be "the search for comfortable."  It's not that comfortable is necessarily bad.  It's more that it's settling for 'not great."

Maybe too much comfort is bad.  I tend to avoid confrontation.  It's uncomfortable.  But - that has turned out badly too many times.  Too much comfort can lead to laziness too - which can also turn out bad.  People often talk about "getting outside of your comfort zone."  I think, in some ways, all we try to do is live within our comfort zone.  I wonder if true growth can occur within our comfort zone.  I'm not so sure...

Fear is a motivating factor - fear of the unknown.  Going outside our comfort zone can create fear.  I think I fall for that fear more often than I'd like to admit.  I can tell a great story - but can I live one?  Maybe that's what this trip is all about.  Learning to live a great story.  Great stories are rarely comfortable ones.

It's sad how often I settle for "less than great."

Jer