Happy Friday! It's Friday, April 15th, 2022.

I'm Kevin Roman. I'm a designer, stylist, and generally all-around happy guy. Every Friday, I've been texting my closest friends a great thought and a great song. After eight years, I'm texting 50 friends every week. So now, I'm taking things further with this podcast. This is happy Friday.

Happy Friday! Thanks so much for listening. This has been a great start. Thanks for all the encouragement and look, we made it through another week and we've made it into a beautiful Spring. Spring is a great time to stretch and refresh and clear your mind.

Something I love doing in Spring is walking. Years ago, I lived in the mountains and I had a trainer who told me I should do my running not in the gym, I should do my running outside in nature. That it would get my body more in tune with the seasons and the climate and temperature around me. And it was so true.

It really does literally get your body in tune with nature. So at the beginning of the pandemic, I started walking around the city. I would walk up and down my neighborhood. I would walk in circles. Sometimes I would go running and then still keep walking. I saw a lot of areas that I hadn't walked through before. I saw a lot of bunnies in the city. Who knew there were so many bunnies in the city? No, I knew there were a lot of bunnies in the city, but I didn't even know there were this much! And I spent a lot of alone time, which was good.

Because during this time, we all had been evaluating everything. When you've had so many unknowns thrown at you, you start to question everything in life, things like when do we choose to be protective versus unguarded? And when do we choose to be social versus private, introverted versus extroverted? And I'm not even talking about morality, you know, good versus evil, being a Boy Scout versus being a Nazi. Those are the easier distinctions, or they should be, at least. I'm talking about all the million different ways that we respond to things and manifest what is right for us and our life. 

Because these are tricky times. And when you're walking through difficult times, it can be like walking a tight rope. And when you're walking a tight rope, the most important thing for you to focus on is balance. And now we all know what balance is, but I love the dictionary. So I looked up, what, what do we actually use to describe and define balance? And I found "equilibrium." Okay. "Stability." Great. "Steadiness," "poise," "equality," being in "harmony" and being "level." And that's how we push on, no matter where we're going, to keep the focus on balance.

Okay. So that's all good. But balance will only get you so far. This journey through life can get tough. Have you ever looked at things and thought, you know, like that nineties movie, "What if this is as good as it gets?" Like, have I passed my peak and are things just like downhill? What's our motivation to move forward if "this is it"?

Ralph Waldo Emerson, America's great poet and thinker, loved to describe the world through circles. Now, circles are pretty cool from a technical aspect, you know, a line with no end, but they're also very interesting from a design perspective, because they're almost the height of simplicity.

The first circle in the world that you encounter is your eye, your portal into the world. And one of the biggest ones we encounter is the horizon. Now, I know, Kevin, you're saying the horizon is a, is a line it's not a circle. Well, imagine standing in the middle of a field and looking around you and you're surrounded by a giant circle.

So think of a circle, think of any circle and what is a circle? It's an enclosed space, a capsule, a complete world of its own. Now, think that around every circle you can draw another larger circle. You can always draw a larger circle around any circle forever, no limit, because life, progress, isn't a straight line.

As long as your knowledge is expanding, you can continue to imagine spheres of experience growing out of you like orbits, expanding forever. Now we all know that nothing is perfect, right? That fact: "nothing is perfect" is what proves that there is always something bigger, always something further. 

So, yes, it's good to have future goals. That's good. But also it is good to live in the moment and not stress. So how do we know which one is best and when? Right! Balance! If we're always growing, then we're never done. Growth is not about getting to the finish line. If you wait to learn until you get to the finish line, you've missed it. You won't be around to enjoy it.

The lesson - the fulfillment - is in the actual experience itself. Because when there's no finish line...

The journey is the destination.

Okay, so every week we're looking at a song. Sometimes it's a great new song, sometimes it's a great old song. Sometimes it'll just be new to you. This one is Bunny is a Rider by Caroline Polachek. It is a real pandemic creation, born during this time when we were all examining ourselves and learning to detach from the expectations of others and free our primal intrinsic truths, while we were fighting our own demons. Self-discovery is not just finding ourselves, but being true to ourself and extending our own growth circles.

I hope you like it. Every week, find a link to Friday's song in the show-notes, right in your podcast app. All the links are also online at our website, happyfriday.fm.

And remember, your journey is your destination.

Thanks so much for listening. What are some things you do in Spring, things you love to do in the season or maybe something you've just discovered? First on my list is "spring cleaning" and... running, maybe?! Find us on Twitter and on Instagram @happyfridayFM.

Now go have a happy Friday!