I had a chat with a friend recently declaring emphatically, as I’m known to do, that I wanted to embrace a more expansive, less frenetic approach toward my world. Sidenote: this is not the sort of exclamation you share with just ANY friend, but the kind of friend who won’t immediately laugh until tears run down her face or wait in uncanny silence for a pin to drop. It’s terrific to have friends who “get” you.
So, there we were, with this opening for exploration of how I was currently approaching my world and how I wanted to perhaps….change.
I like change AND, I’m willing to be wrong. There are times it stings a tad, mostly due to my occasionally “Puff the imaginary dragon” ego. When I’m able to instead take a deep breath and realize a new perspective, something settles inside me and I feel my horizons expand. (Think Arizona evening skyline.) I like broad horizons, a favorite song being Asleep at the Wheel’s rendition of “Don’t Fence Me In.”
I was considering where my narrow mindedness limits me, keeps me closed off from possibilities, opportunity, love, intimacy, growth and adventure. Face it – we all have areas where it does. I shared with my friend a longing to open new channels, my desire for an increased willingness to sit with discomfort from time to time until a clearer answer comes (a compassionate “a-ha”), a better connection maybe with another (not the whirling dervish act I know so well, lobbying for speedy delivery to all things safe and secure). In those moments, I remind myself of the Warner Brothers Loony Tunes character, Road Runner. Beep, beep!
But when we wait…through the act of waiting, something settles; a pregnant pause gives birth to a new way, an open door, new thinking, a breath – like a tender, unhurried kiss.
Being speedy has it’s place and benefits in my life as I’m sure it does at times in yours, when a decision MUST be made, when useless habits work to overpower what might better serve us, and at those necessary “fight or flight” times. As an entrepreneur, I’ve had many of those. Waiting, on the other hand, sitting with the pause and listening, is as compellingly different as the inside and out of a honeydew melon – the outside is hard and impenetrable. The ripe belly is sweet, soft, delicious and nourishing.
How then, do we best nourish ourselves?
The cynic, akin to the one unwilling to be wrong, wears a similar hard surface as the melon, seeing only one view. These folks tend to hug with stiff backs. Oscar Wilde’s quote comes to mind, “The cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
I consider instead, a favorite Abraham Lincoln quote, ‘The best way to predict the future is to create it.” This is best done with a wide open view! How valuable then, is our willingness to be wrong! How precious is our ability to envision and intend a NEW view!