Go with the flow

I've just taken a few minutes to read through some blogs that I've fallen behind on reading.  Which prompts me to wonder how I can "fall behind" on reading blogs ... never mind.

Of course, that tells you something about me.  I am a very list-oriented person.  If something doesn't make it on my list, it's very likely to not get done (though of course many things on my list don't get done either; that's a different post).

So yesterday was my wife's birthday.  She's very spontaneous.  For those into Myers-Briggs, I'm an INTJ and she's an ENFP -- the J(udging) referring to my love of structure (and I'm a very strong J) and her P(erceiving) referring to her love of spontaneity.

So for her birthday I gave her a P gift: I just went along for the ride all day.  Literally.  We rode Portland's light-rail train from about 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.  We went from our home to the central transit station, then transferred to a line that took us to the airport; back on, we went as far east as we could go.  Then we got back on and went as far west as we could go.

We got off once to walk through IKEA, getting ideas for the international microenterprise ministry we co-direct, again for lunch at a nice little Thai place (Thai is her favorite ethnic cuisine) on the east end of town, and again at the far western end for a short walk (where we popped into a Mexican grocery and she bought a coffee and a wonderful taco).  Then it was back to central station and to pick up our kids.

We both have so many things going on, and I'd been thinking about "what to do" for her birthday ... but it turns out the best thing to do for both of us was just to be spontaneous, to go with the flow.

Maybe we don't need our whole life to be structured, after all.  Maybe sometimes leadership is not all about planning but is also sometimes about simply being with others.