Another Day

Another day for adventure.

imagine what you'll know by the dusk of this day?

miles we travel, with the comfort of knowing

someone cares if we should stumble.

Where there waits ease for our travel weary head

sanctuary and nourishment

within a warm welcoming embrace

Improvements

I write a lot about change, and mostly addressing perceptions we decide what change is all about; specifically what threat of danger is hidden in those unexpected changes?  One of my professors, from the foggy recollection of my college bound education, once delivered to my class an idea.  They said,

  “you will talk about those things you are uncertain about until you either gather more information from others on the topic to decide if it’s worth believing, or, that you disqualify every objection to believe it to be true.”

   In effect, we talk about mostly stuff we already know.  Then why the HELL am I spending a fortune on this education?  To feel GOOD about what I already know?

  In that light, let me address some of the things you can’t do with your arm in a wrist cast up to your elbow:

   You can’t continue to put car keys in short pockets on the side of the injured limb without looking as if you have a wild creature attacking your privates when trying to fish them out with the opposite appendage.  Oh and forget any Florence Nightingale coming to your rescue to get them for you.  Get the door for you? Sure, carry your groceries to your car? Yepa, Hold a plastic water bottle to your lips while you try to gulp water rushing into your face? Even that; but stick her hand into your pants? C’mon, how liberated can any society be to think that is a swell thing to try to do with a stranger? Not!

   Can’t turn on the car ignition either (if it’s the right wrist; which it is for me) and reaching over the steering wheel doesn’t work so well because the key has to move ninety degrees to start.  For your left to accomplish that you’ll end up doing almost a complete headstand in the passenger seat…trust me, I’ve tried it. Enough times so now my wife enslaves herself to be my chauffer out of fear that someone will see me try this maneuver and realize that she is married to that nut.

   I think I might be able to overcome some limitations like, say, typing this post. It takes more time one handed, and I use spell check a lot, lot more, and that encourages my sense of independence and self-sufficiency but I’m not convinced yet if I can become nimble enough to put deodorant on under the non-afflicted arm.  

It’s an awkward bend to try, and I keep dropping the applicator on the cat down by my feet.  Frankly I am unsure if the active ingredients that keep me smelling sweet while I sweat won’t ultimately kill my cat when he grooms himself? 

Here is where change can be ambivalent.  Is the quality of my life improved by my becoming aware of all those little things I take for granted?  Or am I just over reacting with the aspect of using my non-dominate hand in the toilet?

Superstitious

Every so often, and most assuredly that moment will arrive unexpectedly, we are brought to a point to reflect on our life's progress.  What better time to address the topic then on Friday the 13^th; an auspiciously superstitious day as for some a playful wink at misfortune.

Now it'd be colossally swell to dwell in the light of success. Ah, to bask in accomplishments and really relish, then savor, all of our many fine talents and tantalizing attributes. Having grown up on Disney, I intended in earnest, to live such a fantasy.

  A youthful heart has a love affair with dreaming, it just felt so darn pleasant.  Soon enough tasks and rituals taken on in living efforts become burdens; then no matter what the rationalization, the fun is diminished.  Childhood was a state of having needs met by those who had authority over us.  And, since we didn't have a vote on the arrangement, we learned to navigate the seas of others approval power and punishment rather quickly.  It was not so difficult to discern the cause and effect of our behavior on our world under such stark conditions.  Most times we only protest when our privileges and freedoms were curtailed for violating a rule...or two. When that happened we referred to the event as an example of injustice.  Yes, we learned unfair at the battleground of our adolescence.

   We discovered hypocrisy in measured bites like learning to suffer liver and onions for supper. It was undeniably something we had to suffer through.  We learned which rules could be bent, and which ones shouldn't be broken, and that lesson would be condition dependent and serve as a template for the rest of our lives.

We discovered how to make friends, and in time, how to make those friends trust us.

We also learned how to become a friend, through sincere allowance of personal faults that couldn’t be helped.

We learned the burning fury of lust, yet did not learn the gentle touch to love until much later; that task was meant for us after we left the nest and could practice our own choices. 

Some are still rehearsing.

We learned to perceiver adversity, and that not all tears are cause for sadness.

We learned resiliency through disappointment, and victory in having tried.

We've mastered a host of skills and wisdom's that are not evaluated by any other standard than, "does it work, and if not, try something else."

It'd be comforting to allow our personal philosophy room to grow. 

Where belief was flexible as principals are intended to be. 

In a rigid environment of absolutes, nature will diminish. 

When perfection is the value, then permanence is the expectation. What an evil taskmaster that can become. 

Yet the saving grace in all of our exploring remains the quintessential truth that cannot be denied, and if fortunate, discovered without delay.  Where change is our friend, and that 'it came to pass' is a blessing of forgiveness.  

Not to mention, there's always room for dessert!