Why fill the gap, why ease the pain, why quench the hunger? When I do, I become a couch potato—no passion, no joy of discovery, only a coaster being spoon-fed whatever someone else has prepared for me for whatever reason.
To be unsatisfied is to find satisfaction. To be cold is to find warmth. Let me clarify: being warm is not the same as finding warmth. When I seek warmth, I am engaged in my own life process. I become sensitized to my feelings, my needs. I explore possibilities, to see what works. In the process, I gain knowledge, learn skills, and grow in relationship.
When I live in that way (what I call the teaching trail), it feels good to lay my head down at night. It’s not just the end of another day, but the end of a day that I have lived to the fullest. I feel content with it, and I feel genuinely tired. It’s not just tired eyes, but I have exercised and exhausted my full physical-emotional-mental being. I have taken what the day had to give, and I’ve given with the day asked of me. At the end of such a day, I know that sleep will come easy, rest will be deep, and odds are I will wake up the next day brimming with passion and anxious to jump out of bed.