The wife and mother-in-law were having a lovely conversation where the phrase “no mud, no lotus” came up. I wasn’t familiar with Thich Naht Hanh, but the phrase immediately struck me.
The lotus flower, a symbol of awakening in Buddhist and other spiritual traditions, blooms in the muckiest, muddiest swamps. Without the mud, the beautiful flower wouldn’t be able to blossom and bloom.
As so many of us are planted within our own mud, it’s important to remember that the struggle and growth through the muck is a necessary to get to the beauty that eventually becomes the lotus flower.
I’m sure this is super simplified, but the reminder that the struggle is necessary was extremely comforting to me this week.Hopefully it is to you also.
That said, my deepest apologies for this kid-friendly earworm:
What I’ve shipped since last month:
rails.market - I’ve been extremely focused the last couple of months, so I decided to treat myself with a small distraction. I’ve been looking for (and not finding) a good directory/marketplace for Ruby on Rails and BulletTrain products, tutorials, and code samples, so decided to build my own. I had a free weekend, so attempted to see how far I could get with the first version. I didn’t get as far as I wanted but was able to get a decent first version up and out the door.
CPA Connect - We got the engagement tool for the accounting firm software I’ve been building out the door and into the hands of our first CPA firm in time for tax season. There were some small hiccups, but overall they are very happy with the results and are planning to continue migrating over to our system and be fully moved over by summer.
Big month for updates to my wife’s company’s custom client management tool. Reworked and rolled out a bunch of updates around project and financial reporting. Always more to do, but really happy with the progress we are making.
What went poorly:
Focus: I let myself get a little distracted after months of sage-like focus. But I had an itch that needed scratching. It’s all a give-and-take to find the balance.
Trusting my tools: I messed up. I put too much trust in how I thought some of my tools were supposed to work but learned the hard way that they didn’t. Sadly, one of my customers was affected and it meant I spent a large chunk of my week recovering and making things right again for them when I could have been working on other things. Lessons learned and think it actually built more trust between us all, but still a hard learned lesson.
Writing: Still not doing as much writing as I’d like, but I was able to at least make some time (more than usual) to write and put out an article that I’ve been sitting on: Purple/Yellow Sector Days.
What went well:
Family: Still the number one focus and I’m so grateful to be able to spend as much time as I get to focusing on spending quality time with them. The thing I never knew about having a kid was just how fast the learning process was. I’m constantly in awe that I actually get to see his growth week after week and day after day. I find myself constantly saying “when did you learn that?”
Balance: I shipped. I spent quality time with the boy. Had quality date nights with the wife. I got done the things that needed to get done (largely by scaling back what that means). It won’t always be like this, but for the last month, I feel proud of and content with how we supported each other and tackled everything in front of us.
Asks:
I’ve started asking the boy at night what he’s most excited about for the next day. He’s too young to understand the concept of “hope” but I think it’s important for him to have something to look forward to.
What are you most hopeful or excited about for this year?