Hobbies

 

I've never really had a hobby before. There have always been things I have enjoyed, but I never would have called them "hobbies". I think there is something intimidating to me about the word "hobby". As if there is this great commitment, discipline, and dedication that comes along with it.

 

A few summers ago I started biking. I never in a million years thought that I would actually enjoy the sport -yes, I will call it a sport. Then I started to ride and it felt freeing. I slowly built up my courage to hit the road and eventually, I got brave enough to clip my feet into the pedals. Talk about scary! But I did it and it felt great.

 

Boise has a great biking community and we have some very intense riders! I would get passed up all the time by these dedicated riders and at first it was disheartening. I would have to remind myself that it's about commitment, discipline, and dedication. In order to be better, I needed to put my whole self into it.

 

One day I was riding and I started thinking about my new hobby. I thought about how much time, thought and energy I put into it and how I'm not even that great at it. It made me think about the word satisfied.

 

I thought about how so often we {as a Western culture} are not satisfied with life. We dabble at a lot of different things in our lives, yet we rarely go deep with one. We juggle meetings, parties, events, and often go home feeling exhausted. We have hundreds of facebook friends and we still feel like no one truly knows us. We have hundreds of options of products, food, clothing, entertainment and yet, we still cannot find the one we are looking for.

 

In a hobby you go deep with it. You study it. You are dedicated to it. You live it, breathe it, and know it well. I wonder if we were to minimized our focus in life, just like in our hobbies, if we would find greater satisfaction. Would we have fewer, but deeper connected relationships? Would we give up much to enjoy the depth of a few things? To live it, breathe it, and know it well.

 

To be satisfied in our deeper focus.