BORN TOMORROW
Wednesday Aug. 6, 2014
I wasn’t born yesterday. Or today . . .
There is no right or wrong way to anything. On things we cannot change, there is just the way it is. On things we can change, there is our way. If that is an action, easy. If it is an attitude, a way of seeing things – that can take a very long time.
DOWN comes before UP.
In dictionaries.
In life.
Doesn’t seem to matter how many ups/hilltops we have. is a trough/valley or deep gorge between them.
Lately I’ve been exploring more hilltops, more peaks, more ‘new highs’.
Does it then hold, logically, that ‘lower lows’ are in my future?
Ups and downs – but I discount if one MUST follow the other.
I felt really good yesterday. I’ll feel really good tomorrow. Even though most of the news I read today is really down(Gaza truce – agreed pause in the killing – as if pausing is the correct action).
But I feel no need for slumping, slitherering or sliding into a darker place.
Sunshine suits me fine.
Daylight is fine.
Every year, on this date, one predictable every-year news story sticks out for me – anniversary of World War II bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, August 6th, 1945. War-ending act, as horrid, as low, and depressing as acts of man can be imagined.
I wasn’t born yet, a time I neither knew or fully understand.
Each time I read it, every year on August 6th, seems more vivid, more horrid, more destructive than the last. And each year it seems to age me because, every year, I wake up on the 7th, a year older.
I am so glad I wasn’t born on the 6th.
I went googling this morning – found others, born on the 7th – born tomorrow: Francis Drake, Napoleon, Teddy Roosevelt, Mackenzie King, Ted Williams, Nikita Krushchev, Mata Hari, Louis, Leakey, Charlize Theron. Nice company to keep.
I got off on a tangent, exploring everything historical that happened on the 7th, looking for good things, happy things.
I found out the first planting of potatoes in Hawaii was on Aug. 7, 1820 … no doubt those colonizing missionary types had tasted the taro root …
And to those who celebrate this day (my guess is 1/365th of you) – there must me lots of notable things about your day too, aside from that horrible act we are reminded of every year.
I wasn’t born yesterday, or today.
I was born tomorrow.
Mark Kolke
column written/ published from Calgary
morning walk: 13C/56F, sun rose through gray haze – made it crimson – then lit a clear blue sky; gentle breeze and a reluctant dog (we went twice around our regular route to achieve production) as traffic noise and roofers clattering wake all but the dead
Reader feedback / comments always welcome:
Dear Mark, I hope you are doing well. On the topic of focus, I recently (very recently) discovered Transcendental Meditation. From what I have read, learned, and now personally experienced, this is an amazing tool for increasing clarity and focus (in addition to a host of other benefits). And, unlike focus, TM is easy. Regards, PT, Houston, TX
If you think focusing on being focused is tough do what I sometimes do ……….don’t focus at all , be totally ‘’out there’’ and see how well that goes !!!, AN, Calgary, AB
