When I moved into my house in the Reynoldstown neighborhood of Atlanta, it was late winter.

Therefore, I had no way of identifying the vines that crisscrossed the backyard all the way to the deck.

I might have known, however. When things began to leaf out a few weeks later, I realized that I was dealing with kudzu, a non-native plant known as "the vine that ate the South." This enthusiastically invasive species can grow several inches a day, climb telephone poles, and engulf wide stretches of open land. Boy, this would be fun.

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Human potential is effectively infinite.

Yeah, there are certain areas in which we are approaching the limits of what individuals can do. There's only so fast that a man can run a mile, right? But we thought that nobody could run the mile in under four minutes until Roger Bannister did it in 1954. So what do we know.

Areas other than physical performance might be harder to measure. How do we know what we're capable of?

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I deeply miss teaching school.

For years, I showed up every morning to The Little Middle School, just like a real job with a boss. In effect, I had hired myself to work directly with the students, instructing them in math and science and writing and history and laughing at their hijinks. It was challenging, rewarding, frustrating, interesting, and fun.

I didn’t quit because I didn’t love it. I quit because I had other things I wanted to do. Now, I’m a thousand miles away while school goes on without me. I have had to let go, and that’s been challenging and rewarding, too.

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With a couple of major projects wrapped up, others delegated, and others dropped, I have found myself in a slow season.

First, I took a vacation. When I went to set the autoresponder on my email, I learned that I hadn’t done so since the summer of 2018. Yikes! Even if I didn’t go anywhere, this complete holiday from my laptop was necessary.

I further decided that, upon my return from my vacation, I would strip away everything from my to-do list that wasn’t essential.

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The other day, I didn’t leave the house.

This happened for a mix of reasons: Covid. A high of 19 degrees Fahrenheit with 20 mph winds. A busy schedule of Zoom meetings. And then, the coup de grâce: I didn’t feel like it.

Listen, I know that sitting is as bad for you as smoking, or whatever they’re saying to try to scare us these days. And exercise and fresh air is important to me. But sometimes, I don’t do what’s best for me. I don’t have the energy or the gumption or the desire. So I do…other things. Or nothing at all.

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