A Heart That's Filled with Music

Riding my bike on Friday after work I had time to think clearly and it felt great. I got a two-hour ride in and did my usual River Road to Miller to Hayfield route. I rode over 20 mph on the way out and turned toward Miller and hit a wall of wind. It felt like I was climbing a mountain!

Between Miller and Hayfield I started listening to the Roots. I have a pretty eclectic taste in music and the Roots are one of my favorite rap groups. Their song "Sacrifice" was playing and the lyrics really hit me:

I tell you one lesson I learned
If you want to be something in life
You ain't gonna get it unless
You give a little bit of sacrifice
Ooohh, sometimes before you smile you got to cry
You need a heart that's filled with music
If you use it you can fly
If you want to be high

Okay, maybe a little wishy-washy (especially for the Roots) but it said something to me.

I've been thinking a lot about the grass on the other side of the fence lately and that has made me restless. I almost always feel like doing "something else." I want to travel, I want to take a nap, I want to eat great food, I want to work hard, I want to be lazy, I want to be a loner, I want to hang out with friends, I want to watch all of these movies and TV shows, I want to ride my bike and golf and play poker and run. The cycle is never-ending. Contentment is eluding me.

The song kind of told me to slow down and relax. That I have to sacrifice some things in life if I want to be happy and content.

I just finished reading the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu. It has made me think about every aspect of my life and it truly has CHAlleNGED me.

The Tao has basically told me what the Roots were telling me. I need to make some sacrifices. If I strive for everything, I will achieve nothing. If I expect too much, I will not by happy. If I expect nothing, I will have everything.

So, between Miller and Hayfield, I decided that lasting truth and happiness in life can really only come from the things that have been accessible to everyone in human civilization.

Friendship. Nature. Love for Others. Compassion. An Honest Day's Work. A Filling Meal.

These are the things that last from generation to generation. The iPods and road bikes and Nike shoes and even the paved roads are accessories to the important things in life. Lao Tzu could be happy in my life and I could be happy in his, but the key is to not be attached to the temporary accessories of our lives.

The key to happiness and contentment is to latch onto the things that can never die. If our hearts are filled with music, no one will be able to stop the sound.

If we need an iPod to hear the music, the battery might go dead.

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On Saturday I played in the $280 WSOP satellite and finished 12th ($450) out of 120. I was close to being chip leader with about 18 left and was bummed out to not make the final table, which paid out $1,000 or more. I probably tried to steal the blinds too much but also just got unlucky by either getting shoved on or having the BB hit their hand against my ace-rags. Oh well. Live and learn.

I felt like I played really good deep-stack poker and took advantage of the conservative players. I should have folded AA after the flop on one hand and I knew it but I called anyway and got lucky when an A hit the river to outset a kids with trip 6s. That made me a huge chipleader early in the tournament and I had about 10% of the chips in play when we were down to 18. Just didn't do well when the blinds got big and probably needed to slow down.

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After 8 hours of poker, I hit up a BBQ at a friends house and then went bowling. I bowled a 166 and a 177, which has to be my best two-game series ever. I had some great friends in town and it was really fun to bowl and hang out with all of them!

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On Sunday, I went to lunch at Turnberry's at Rice Lake to celebrate my Grandpa's 80th birthday. What an amazing person! 80 years old and he still can play up to 54 holes on a Thursday.

I got an awesome hour-long run in on Sunday afternoon and ran pretty fast. Under 9 minute miles for almost 7 miles is pretty good for me!

Later I watched "Spirit of the Marathon" -- a documentary about marathons that was pretty good. Not great, but worth watching. I also watched "Australia" later that night and it was just okay.

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I have a 40 minute bike and 20 minute swim tonight and I'm going to play around with the side I breathe on during the swim. Then I'm going to eat a healthy dinner and finish season 1 of Weeds!

Enjoy the ride,
Damm