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UP TO YOU
Tuesday May 12, 2015
Feet firmly on ground.
We feel our direction, get bearings by compass, from distance to shores.
On plane, in boat, as bird, or fish – options include up and down, but where’s the fun in that?
Here’s da ’ting, is our life best governed by someone else’s compass?
We can slip our tether, scaring ourselves a little – scare others for sure.
Our mind can take us places we’ve never been – then we just have to follow …
Directions, paths, ‘right ways’ seem to matter lots.
Why?
So bloody prescriptive. Driving in our lane, staying on correct side of the road, staying right when negotiating staircases ~ staying safe, our perception of it, seems a human preoccupation we should re-think. Who is safe anyway? On this billions-years-old planet, we’ll last 80-100 years. Barely a moment in time. Actuaries happily inform us, especially for middle-aged contemporaries and I, that if we’ve made it this far we have a very high likelihood of making it to our life expectancy.
That’s just it, isn’t it?
What’s our expectancy of our own life?
Saving grave illness or traffic-accident trauma, I’ll likely live long, be comfortable, whatever I do. So will you. Simply staying in tracks, staying on these proven tracks set down for us.
The ONLY think.
The ONLY THING, we have any power at all over, is our response to what happens to us.
If we go off-track we’ll likely not shorten or lengthen our life but we might deepen it. Stretch it. Inflate it. Make it soar.
Or not.
Up to you …
I’d rather be an unfinished symphony than quit without having dared trying …
Mark Kolke
column written/ published from Calgary, AB
morning walk: 0C/32F, clear, half a moon sitting witness to a soon-rising morn, Gusta crunching of fresh frozen grass (the sprinklers went on at 3AM), steady/wobbly we soldiered on in pristine silence …
Reader feedback:
GIVER TAKE
“Are we not so imprisoned by what we believe we should do that we dare not do what we want to do? And when someone asks, ‘what do you want to do?’, do we really have a clue – or do we just recite what is expected of us?”” - I think I've read that paragraph 5 times in the last hour. What's my answer? How difficult is it to throw all that you've worked for to the side and start anew? How terrifying? How strong am I? Would it be too selfish? Irresponsible? Would I be alone? I don't even know what I want to do - but I know that I don't feel the passion that I want to have every day when I wake up. I know it's in me, but I have somehow lost it. I miss the blurred lines between work and home - when work was as comfortable and rewarding as home. Maybe since I got rid of what made me unhappy (my husband) I've found less pleasure in my work because my personal life sucks less... Maybe my job is too easy and I really "get it" a lot easier than most people around me. Perhaps I need not worry about the why, and spend energy on what's next - what do I want to do?, SN, Chicago, IL
I LIKE SPAGHETTI
Hi Mark, Just catching up with emails and the ole communicae... I really enjoy your musing...such a lovely mind to daily walk within; yours. Ok...two questions... may I pass your email on to others who may enjoy reading it? and...I have a single friend who too is interested in dating and in communicating about interesting things. What is the age range that you are interested in? SF, Lethbridge, AB
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