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HOPES and DREAMS, FORESTS and HERDS

Monday, Apr. 13, 2020
 
 
Like an unexpected telegram arriving in olden days, might be good news or sad. ‘Attention-getting,’ calls from long quiet friends, texts from new ones. Arrival of long-anticipated news or new connections – electronic-adrenaline …
 
When days are bleak, uncertain, or dangerously negative, is that when these magical happenings arrive, or are they there all along, like existence of sunshine above clouds?
 
So different from a mirage that isn’t there – a hologram-like hallucination, this might be both real, and what we’ve dreamed of.
 
Best opportunities might be those metaphorical trees at the edge of forests, evidently there to be seen, not part of our focus because we see only forests, not trees.
 
Seeing crowds and masses without seeing people, without noticing individuals. We each live solitary lives, lone trees in a 7.5 billion tree forest.
 
But forests don’t move; 7.5 billion of us do, more like a cattle herd – jostling, looking for direction, easily spooked or stampeded without certainty of safety – moving, or not.
 
Whether hiding in the crowd, reaching out from the edge, or rising up to see over the herd requires courage and effort.
 
We don’t always like what we see, or have sufficient strength to resist, to counter the herd.
 
We might be wrong, miss-identifying, or being misled – always a chance, sometimes worth taking, sometimes worth steering from.
 
What’s next?
 
Redrawing boundaries, or building better alliances?
 
Global distancing, or cooperation?
 
If we stand above any crowd, we risk attack, or maybe we lead a movement – we live in a time which needs for new leaders to emerge, and for old followers to follow.
 
Leadership and followership, required now more than ever.
 

Reader feedback:
HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN
I have set my mind to go on  in enjoying life more, this is not the first time I set for that but this time I won't waver. Day one, AG, Cancun, Mex.
 
It was strange to hear the original “Happy days” knowing it was a bare faced lie, at best an extreme exercise in wish projection. Most of us are wishing now, as then, without a definitive end in sight, RH, Calgary, AB




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Mark Kolke, Realtor, MaxWell South Star Realty


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