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NEVER A TIME CLOCK

Wednesday Jan. 21, 2015


What is life made of?

Surely not something you hold in your hand.

But many handfuls.

Substance.

Boatloads.

Are our lives not made of substance?

If not, what then?

Defining essence of life is challenging to grasp when shuffling bleary-eyed and weary from bedroom to kitchen, as if sandman’s truck careened across the steep curve of nightmare’s freeway …

Sleep, delicious sleep, makes so much difference. Body’s restorative powers (we heal so quickly from most physical pains) don’t apply as generously with emotional matters – but those too are salved, nurtured back to health by sleep.

Sleep, cures everything. Third of life we so easily ignore, dismiss or short-change.

Sleep on it. Sleep in.

Sleep some more.

Go back to sleep.

Perchance to …

Existence, it seems, doesn’t appear to be on-purpose.

It looks more like it’s on-accident …

Is life – yours or mine – a purposeful one?

Does it start with an idea in our mind, however vague, that we have purpose, choice and determination? Can we set, reach and exceed lofty goals?

Sure we can, and when we do there is no accident …

Or is it?

I’ve found interesting stories in people I’ve met recently, fascinating achievements in large part attributable to chance, to mistake. To accident. They admit those subtle nuances of how success emerged from colliding variables is rooted more in work-ethic and values than in some lottery-esque randomness.

Yes, purpose.

Yes, on-purpose.

Purposefully.

Sleep, our best way to get to the bottom of challenges we confront.

My body gets to rest.

My voice gets quiet.

While non-consciousness works away as if there was never a time-clock to punch.

 

Mark Kolke

column written/ published from Calgary, AB

morning walk:   -7C/19F, plenty of cloud cover for warm breezes that will make the next few days big-melt days, but Gusta struggled with some of the rough icy spot – her studded tires not much help – as we took in lots of fresh air and the start of a colourful sunrise (we’ve been missing those) as days start earlier and earlier … or are we just walking later?

Reader feedback:

DAY AFTER

Hi Mark: Greetings from Arizona. Hope all is well.  Can you do me a favour and put this back to my gmail address? Email gobbles much of my day and I need to organize the urgent from the "nice to have."  I know you'd like to believe your blog is vital to my day, but alas, it's not. Cheers!, SG, Calgary, AB

Living in the South of the good ole US of A I can attest to the fact that prejudice has not been eradicated.  Here in southeaster Texas as well as Louisiana blacks will most often be referred to by the 'N' word.  My southern Alabama grandmother would rise to the occasion upon hearing that word and we, in her family, could expect a slap across the cheeks if we ever dared to utter that word.  She raised us to believe that the 'N' word had no color boundaries.  And yet, I get bombarded with the word more times than I care to recount.  I often ponder the reason for prejudice as I see it from both color spectrums.  Is it that we dare to accept the differences between the races?  Or is it just a refusal to let go of the past?  Haven't found any answers so far; guess it is a wonderment.  GW, Bon Wier, Tx.


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