Living Potential

Your potential is real. Mine as well. Living as though potential is a resource to use and build upon is the point of this posting today.

Walk down a street and observe people. Sit in an airport and watch people. Go to a mall, find a comfy bench, bring a book and then periodically watch people go about their business. What do you see?

No doubt you will see people with purpose attending to errands. These folk will walk with energy, longer strides, and follow a path they seem to know well. Others will meander, gaze slowly at window displays and wander into a shop or two. What are they doing? Killing time? Searching for an idea of what to buy someone as a present? Maybe they are checking out what they like and do not have at home; a possible purchase to round out the décor?

Other people tag along with family and friends. They really don’t want to be there. You can tell. Wandering eye, lagging behind their group, a frown or scowl on their face.

Of course, there are those of us sitting on a bench watching others! Or killing time while the group I’m with is done spending money in the stores.

In a restaurant, watch fellow diners. See who is enjoying the food, the taste, the treat of eating out. See if you can tell if someone is doing a chore of getting a meal, not truly tasting it, but just getting by until the next duty calls them out. Some diners in pairs do not even talk with their companions. Why? Are they mutually mute? Or deaf? Or do they not care much about what they are doing?

Now, people with potential are everywhere. Even the disabled or seriously ill. We all have our potential, something to grow with and into. You would not know this by watching others go about their lives.

Yes, there are those who are very aware of their potential, and they grasp it, use it, and are empowered by it. They flit from one task to another, they study possibilities and options, then choose and act. They dream of possibilities and work toward making them happen. They see others in need and help them when they can. They share. They act. They think. They do.

Some of these very same people have problems, huge problems – pending job loss, troubled marriage, sick child at home, challenging expenses – and many more. You would not know this by watching them. They are actively pursuing something else, potential. Their potential.

This is not a distraction, but living into potential does take the mind off of other matters that trouble us. If we cannot do anything about the problems, at least we can do something positive. With potential.

I wonder how many people think about this? I did this morning in the wee hours. Awoke and pondered. Fell back to sleep. Got up at 5 and started my day. And wrote this blog.

Whose potential are we talking about? Yours. Mine. Ours. Best we pay it some attention.

April 14, 2021