Un profesor se paró frente de su clase mientras tenía algunas cosas en su escritorio. Al dar comienzo a la clase, tomo un gran frasco de vidrio que estaba vacío y procedió a llenarlo con pelotas de golf. Rompió su silencio preguntando a sus alumnos si el jarro estaba lleno. Sin excepción, todos los estudiantes asintieron.

    El profesor después tomo una caja con canicas de cristal y las vertió entre las pelotas de golf que antes había puesto en el jarro. El profesor sacudió el jarro suavemente y las canicas escurrieron a los espacios que habían quedado entre las pelotas de golf. Nuevamente, el profesor preguntó a sus alumnos si el jarro estaba lleno. Los alumnos, sorprendidos, respondieron con un “sí” unánime.

    El profesor tomó una pequeña caja de arena y la vertió dentro del jarro. Por supuesto, la arena lleno todo el espacio que quedaba en el jarro. Pregunto una vez más si el jarro estaba lleno. Los estudiantes respondieron en voz alta y al mismo
tiempo “sí”.

    El profesor sacó después dos cervezas debajo de su escritorio y las vertió completamente dentro del jarro de vidrio llenando el espacio entre la arena. Los estudiantes rieron.

    “Ahora”, dijo el profesor mientras la risa disminuía, “Quiero que piensen que este jarro representa su vida.     Las pelotas de golf son las cosas importantes – su familia, los hijos, la salud, los amigos y sus pasiones. Si lo perdieran todo y solo estas cosas importantes quedaran, su vida todavía estaría llena y plena. Las canicas representan las otras cosas que importan como su trabajo, su casa y su auto. La arena es todo lo demás, el resto.”

    “Si ponen la arena primero dentro del jarro vacío”, continuó, “No habrá más espacio para las canicas o las pelotas de golf. Lo mismo pasa en su vida.”

    “Si pasan todo su tiempo y energía en las cosas pequeñas, nunca van a tener espacio para las cosas que son realmente importantes.”

    “Presten siempre atención a las cosas que son realmente importantes para ser felices. Pasen tiempo con sus hijos. Pasen tiempo con sus padres. Visiten a sus abuelos. Salgan a cenar con su esposa. Disfruten otra fiesta en familia. Siempre habrá tiempo después para limpiar la casa y cortar el césped.

    “Siempre preocúpense de las Pelotas de golf primero - las cosas que realmente importan. Fijen sus prioridades. El resto es sólo arena.”

    Una vez que el profesor había terminado, uno de los estudiantes levanto su mano y preguntó que representaba la cerveza. El profesor sonrió y dijo, “Que bueno que preguntaste. La cerveza solo muestra que no importa cuan llena de cosas parezca tu vida, siempre hay tiempo para compartir un par de cervezas con un amigo.”

David Kelley: How to build your creative confidence

Esos días raros

Esos días raros

En los que me encierro completamente en mi burbuja

Y me da por pensar.

    Desgraciadamente, esos pensamientos van deformándose hasta tener ideas completamente nuevas, diferentes a la realidad. A la vida misma.
    Y yo soy consciente de ello... pero por otra parte... no puedo descartar esas ideas porque... ¿y si por alguna extraña razón son certeras?
     En estos momentos en los que empiezo a marginarme, porque lo necesito. Necesito estos días en los que saco afuera todas las ideas, todas las rarezas, hasta recobrar mi estado normal.

Necesito aclararme, centrar mi mente.

    Y hacerlo sola. Si trato de expresarlo, nada cobrará sentido para el que me escuche, así que... ¿para qué gastar saliva?

Por otro lado

Me siento débil

Necesito apoyo

Ese abrazo que me recuerde dónde estoy

Y no haga que me pierda en mi burbuja.

Necesitar estar sola

y al mismo tiempo

necesitar a los demás.

Mi rutina

    Ver... qué es lo que ha hecho que llegue a tener esta idea sobre mí mismo.

    Mirar atrás, y recordar todos aquéllos momentos que me hicieron sentir tan mediocre... que me han convertido en lo soy.

    Sufrir, y ver que mientras sufro otros disfrutan de ello...

    Hablar, y sentir que las palabras vuelan en el vacío, sin llegar a oídos de otros.

    Dar todo mi ser por otras personas, y ver cómo desaparecen sin decir adiós.

    Todos esos pequeños momentos, hacen que piense que carezco de valor.

    Sentirme invisible ante tanta gente, convierte mi vida en algo ajeno al mundo. Días marginados, deambulando en mi propio rincón, mi propio planeta.

***

De repente llegaste tú y rompiste mi rutina.

Tim Brown TED 2008 - Historias de Creatividad y Juego

Elige las palabras adecuadas,

los gestos adecuados,

los momentos adecuados...

Y todo saldrá bien.

To This Day Project - Shane Koyczan

    Pasando por el blog de una amiga me encontré con esto, y sentí la necesidad de publicarlo también en el mío. Es, como dice ella, magnífico. No puedo estar más de acuerdo.

   
     Transcripción:

    "When I was a kid, I used to think that pork chops and karate chops were the same thing. I thought they were both pork chops, and because my grandmother thought it was cute and because they were my favourite, she let me keep doing it. Not really a big deal.

    One day, before I realized fat kids are not designed to climb trees, I fell out of a tree and bruised the right side of my body. I didn’t want to tell my grandmother about it, because I was afraid I’d get in trouble for playing somewhere that I shouldn’t have been. Afew days later, the gym teacher noticed the bruise and I got sent to the principal’s office.

    From there I was sent to another small room with a really nice lady who asked me all kinds of questions about my life at home. I saw no reason to lie; as far as I was concerned, life was pretty good. I told her “whenever I’m sad my grandmother gives me karate chops”. This led to a full scale investigation, and I was removed from the house for three days until they finally decided to ask how I got the bruises. News of this silly little story quickly spread through the school, and I earned my first nickname: pork chop. To this day, I hate pork chops.

    I’m not the only kid who grew up this way; surrounded by people who used to say that rhyme about sticks and stones, as if broken bones hurt more than the names we got called... and we got called them all.

    So we grew up believing no one would ever fall in love with us, that we’d be lonely forever, that we’d never meet someone to make us feel like the sun was something they built for us in their tool shed. So broken heart strings bled the blues, as we tried to empty ourselves so we would feel nothing. Don’t tell me that hurts less than a broken bone, that an ingrown life is something surgeons can cut away, that there’s no way for it to metastasize. It does.

    She was eight years old our first day of grade three, when she got called ugly. We both got moved to the back of the class so we would stop get bombarded by spit balls. But the school halls were a battleground where we found ourselves outnumbered day after wretched day. We used to stay inside for recess, because outside was worse. Outside we’d have to rehearse running away, or learn to stay still like statues, giving no clues that we were there. In grade five they taped a sign to her desk that read: ''beware of dog''. 

    To this day, despite a loving husband, she doesn't think she's beautiful because of a birthmark that takes up a little less than half of her face. Kids used to say: ''she looks like a wrong answer that someone tried to erase but couldn't quite get the job done''. And they'll never understand that she's raising two kids whose definition of beauty begins with the word ''mom''. Because they see her heart before they see her skin, that she's only ever always been amazing.

    He was a broken branch grafted onto a different family tree. Adopted, but not because his parents opted for a different destiny. He was three when he became a mixed drink of one part left alone and two parts tragedy. Started therapy in 8th grade. Had a personality made up of tests and pills, lived like the uphills were mountains and the downhills were cliffs. Four fifths suicidal, a tidal wave of anti depressants and an adolescence of being called popper. One part because of the pills and ninety nine parts because of the cruelty, he tried to kill himself in grade ten, when a kid who still had his mom and dad had the audacity to tell him “get over it”, as if depression is something that can be remedied by any of the contents found in a first aid kit.

    To this day, he is a stick on TNT lit from both ends. Could describe to you in detail the way the sky bends in the moments before it’s about to fall. And despite an army of friends who all call him an inspiration, he remains a conversation piece between people who can’t understand sometimes becoming drug free has less to do with addiction, and more to do with sanity.

    We weren’t the only kids who grew up this way. To this day, kids are still being called names. The classics were: ''hey stupid'', ''hey spaz''. Seems like each school has an arsenal of names getting updated every year. And if a kid breaks in a school and no one around chooses to hear, do they make a sound? Are they just the background noise of a soundtrack stuck on repeat when people say things like ''kids can be cruel''?

    Every school was a big top circus tent, and the pecking order went from acrobats to lion tamers, from clowns to carnies. All of these were miles ahead of who we were. We were freaks, lobster claw boys and bearded ladies. Oddities juggling depression and loneliness playing solitaire spin the bottle, trying to kiss the wounded parts of ourselves and heal. But at night, while the others slept, we kept walking the tightrope. It was practice, and yeah, some of us fell.

    But I want to tell them that all of this shit is just debris, leftover when we finally decide to smash all the things we thought we used to be. And if you can’t see anything beautiful about yourself, get a better mirror, look a little closer, stare a little longer. Because there’s something inside you that made you keep trying, despite everyone who told you to quit. You built a cast around your broken heart and signed it yourself. You signed it “they were wrong”.

    Because maybe you didn’t belong to a group or a click, maybe they decided to pick you last for basketball or everything, maybe you used to bring bruises and broken teeth to show and tell but never told. Because how can you hold your ground if everyone around you wants to bury you beneath it? You have to believe that they were wrong. They have to be wrong.

    Why else would we still be here? We grew up learning to cheer on the underdog, because we see ourselves in them. We stem from a root planted in the belief that we are not what we were called, we are not abandoned cars stalled out and sitting empty on a highway. And if in some way we are, don’t worry, we only got out to walk and get gas. We are graduating members from the class of ''fuck off, we made it''. Not the faded echoes of voices crying out names will never hurt me.

    Of course, they did. But our lives will only ever always continue to be a balancing act that has less to do with pain, and more to do with beauty."