So It Goes

Day after day. Hour after hour. Time passes. We survive. And wonder how that happened.

Before we wondered what it would be like if the awful occurred. And it did. And yet we lived on. What we thought was the end of life as we know it didn’t turn out to be so.

Repeat this many times during your lifetime and eventually it dawns on you that life is not as simple as we thought. Or think. Or wish. It is much more complex than that.

And so it goes. In work and career, in missed buses and trains. Even planes. There is always another one and, yes, we are late by our schedule. In real time, though, we are not missed for fifteen minutes or an hour. We show up, arrive, and join in the process. Our thoughts – contributions to the discussion – are noted and appreciated. Soon the lateness of our arrival is out of mind.

I lived for many years with a busy railroad track bisecting the town. Inevitably a train arrived to delay my commute. Even today I have a doctor’s appointment north of the tracks in a small town, and a dentist appointment nearby on the other side of the tracks in the same small town. I worry that I will be late to the dentist. I fret. I worry. But I learned to accept the annoyance of frequent delays and habitually brought a book with me ‘just in case’.

In time I looked forward to the delay so I could return to my reading!

With electronic readers available I am now always with reading material. Even the esoteric career reading material is with me! My mind is pulled toward positive considerations and mental exercise. It is far more valuable than fretting over a traffic delay.

Speaking of which, I learned to bring along a news magazine, or a newspaper column to read in my ‘spare time’ years ago, that’s when I thought to bring a book with me at all times. Odd how that works. We forget how habits begin until we think back on them almost by accident.

And so it goes. On and on. The annoying becomes an opportunity to do something better, more.

Like the moments in the night – say 2 or 3 am – when a thought pops into mind and you know instantly it matters to think on this. Somehow it is new and refreshing. In truth it is old but made fresh by its sole existence at a time when the mind can focus on it rather than the sea of context normally encountered. Pulling the wheat from the chaff is not easy then, but at 2 or 3 am? Easy peasy!

A quick trip to the computer or notepad upon getting out of bed and the thought is saved for use later in the day. Or on the commute delayed by a train or accident or snow…

Time caught without warning gives room for an idea to form and process.

The elusive is found. Discovered? Who really cares? It only matters that we now have it.

And so it goes. How about you?

April 11, 2017