Keep showing up

I don't know where I heard it, but I remember the statement, "It's the hardest thing in the world to 'show up'!"  I've been learning more and more about this as I continue to live this unique life of mine that no one anywhere else is living.  Now, off the bat, it's easy to just think of this from the perspective of being a performing musician for many years and hearing from friends or acquaintances how they are coming to an upcoming show of mine that I may happen to mention.  "Oh, I'll come to that!"  I'd say of all the times I've heard that from people, probably 15% of the time, they would actually be there when they said they would.  Ultimately, it's not a huge deal because I've become so desensitized to it....  So much so that when a friend actually does show up, it is a huge deal for me.  But more and more, I'm recognizing that everything in life is about "showing up."  In every situation that we are involved with, we are "showing up."  Getting out of bed and just making your bed as the first task of your day sets the tone for a productive day and can act as a visual representation "that the little things in life matter.  If you can't do the little things right, you'll never be able to do the big things right."  (Admiral McRaven, Univ. of Texas commencement speech, Youtube Video)  It's also a great way of to start your day with a feeling of accomplishment, starts off productivity, sets up your bed to be a decluttered space and makes your room look cleaner, which some research shows contributes to reduced stress levels, and helps develop good habits (Pauline Morrissey, online article from Domain).  Just getting up and doing your bed is "showing up."  Making a pot of coffee to start your day with a book or a journal entry is "showing up."  Even just getting to the point where you make time to write a blog post, that most definitely is "showing up".  Of course, I'm not even going to mention getting to your job every day to make the needed money to be financially able to "show up" to pay your bills every month because that's a little too obvious.  But making time to be with loved ones, whether it requires a walk across the street, a drive across town, or a flight across the country, is essential to having a fulfilling life.  And it's all "showing up"!  I have family who live within 15 minutes of driving from each other who do not see each other as much as I see them individually because they choose to not see other very often.  That is their choice, of course, but a choice I do not agree with, because there will be a time when we are all not able to "show up" for one reason or another, and we may regret that we didn't "show up" when we had the opportunity.  If you don't make the time to "show up" to all these situations, it seems to me that you are really missing out of some important aspects of what it means to "show up" to the important stuff in life, whether big or small.  It's easy to make excuses to not "show up".  Instead, I'm trying really hard to come up with reasons why "showing up" is necessary to living the life that I really want (and deserve) to live.