Daily routines keep us functioning. Healthy or ailing, we do our normal tasks without thinking much about them. Walk the dog; feed the dog, pick up the kitchen, organize the papers at the computer, turn on lights, open draperies, and so on. Make the coffee, sit at the computer, post the blog, read the emails and then switch to Facebook. Keep up with friends and family. Turn next to the day’s news.
Several news feeds from all over the world. Human interest stories, technology news, world and regional news, too. Some local news but not much.
Then a scan on what is on the docket for the day. Complete a few tasks, then focus on the heavier ones.
When the dust cloud clears, it is time to ponder the items and what they mean. Do they mean something different for the other items? Does cause and effect intermingle equally or without balance? What then does that mean?
One thought returns often – possibility.
So much of what we encounter is an atom of something else that, when connected or massaged, makes something else happen or possible. Ideas are like that. Feelings, too. And aromas, sounds, breezes felt on the face or arm. Together these sensations remind us of something in our past. Times long gone often were the harbingers of the future only we didn’t realize it at the time.
When I think back to younger years, I realize how little we knew at the time. Life experiences have informed us and, if we had it to do over again, we would live life differently. Only we didn’t have that knowledge then; what we know today is distilled from many experiences and earned slowly and dearly.
I suppose this is why I value education, training, interaction with mentors, coaches and experienced people; they bring practical knowledge to the situation. They help us use our gifts better, more fully.
Callow is a condition of ignorance, of chronology, lack of experience. It is a stage setter for vulnerability and openness. We are more receptive to experience and the gifts of others? Depends how callow we were then!
Today we drink in what others have to say because we know better how to process the ideas. We know what is correct, what is likely incomplete and unreliable. We sense truth and fact better today with life experience under our belt.
So the uninitiated may be callow, but they are unencumbered by a lot of misinformation and are open to possibility. Remember when we first started high school and wondered what we would learn? Or began college and wondered the same thing? Or grad school? What would we learn and realize what was possible with this new information?
Or a new job, a twist of career, new friends and interests in life. The possibilities became a flood and we knew better what to do with them. And yes, some of these were our own ideas, but the DNA of each of those came from so many sources we cannot tag their origins accurately.
Possibilities lie before us. We need to recognize them. Find them. Ponder them. Use them.
And wonder.
October 21, 2019
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