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A FRAYED KNOT
… is easy to fix
Sunday Jan. 19, 2014
I needed to fix it. It wasn’t right, didn’t fit my whole meaning, didn’t connect the dots from title, to subject, to ending – so I fixed it.
Today’s DRAFT title went like this: HAPPINESS IS
… inside or outside
And what if I’d worded it differently, as … inside or outside our grasp ?
So, I fixed it.
I can fix anything. A few keystrokes, massage some words, chop, slice, sauté and simmer – these are my tools, I can fix anything I put my mind to . . .
“Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.” – Ernest Hemingway
Hemingway was pretty messed up … and wrong!
Ends.
And endings – neither places or statement of immobility, they are states of mind created in our heads to locate and measure where we are. Clarify how we are feeling. Too soon, yes I know, to be talking of spring. A few slightly longer big melt days do not a spring make. But we think it. Feel it. Imagine it. How easily we can go from January doldrums to spring shower remembrances of walking in the rain. Planting flowers in our garden we are wandering somewhere in our brain.
Way of marking a spot in time because after that end or ending being marked by a post, a calendar or a line in the sand, there is beginning.
Lets think about non-weather reasons for new growth.
Fresh ideas sprout more easily than seeds.
There is no end to _______.
What comes next in that sentence really matters. It makes a difference or makes you laugh, makes you sad or makes you cry. Or both.
There is no end to this pain. Or, there is no end to this joy.
There is no end on my shoe lace.
I’m afraid not.
I’m a frayed knot.
I’m not afraid anymore.
My shoe lace is a frayed mess. It’s just a shoe lace.
My face is a frowned mess. It’s just a face.
My heart is a jumbled mess of emotion. It’s just a heart.
My point?
Every imagined trouble in our mind is something we made there.
Every trouble in our life is something that exists if we worry about it.
If I know this, is there any real trouble in my life, or in the world?
Worrying about troubles, real or imagined, doesn’t fix anything.
Fixing things – our shoelace, smiley face or damaged heart – these are thing we can do.
We just have to start.
How?
By fixing something.
It might begin with some tape wrapped tightly around our frayed end, then snipped with scissors. Not as good as new, but better than it was. I fixed three things yesterday.
Then I fixed dinner.
Even on days when you don’t think you could fix anything, you can always fix dinner.
Mark Kolke
199,696
column written/ published from Calgary
morning walk: 1C / 33F, morning broke like any other day, our walk was treachery – and we tried both sides of the street, we tried the street too; I imagine emergency rooms will be busy fixing bones and bruises. Stay safe everyone – it’s crazy risking walking out there today!
Reader feedback / comments always welcome:
Hi Mark: you are welcome for the music recommendations, and thanks for your good wishes. #62 is starting off really well, so far! (BTW, please note that Sting has always been in our cohort also!). Now, given your column of today, here's a question: what technology are you using to reliably measure your weight in tenths of a pound? Seems awfully refined ... and, if it's battery operated, I am thinking the power just might be diminishing at the same rate you are reporting your weight loss! Experience has shown that if I just *think* about the Keg, I gain five pounds! I don't even have to go there! Anyway, I'd like to thank you, as well, on the epitaph front -- you inspired me to jot down a new possible -- "Still trying different things!" Cheers, BE, Calgary, AB
re: "someone who tried many different things" not only my epitaph, my resume. I am consequently dismissed by people who worship experts. But when the job requires a general understanding of all the components, left-brain and right-brain wisdom and relationship and emotional IQ, I shine. And I have way more fun, at least from my perspective. Cheers!, SG, Calgary, AB
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