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GREENING OUR NEEDS
Saturday Oct. 18, 2014
“The grass is always greener where you water it”.
I found that unattributed quote yesterday. I think I’ll take ownership – at least take custody of it because it hits home.
This makes sense to me and represents a wonderful metaphor for getting, and staying, focused.
“I can’t today.”
I’ve said that. Sometimes it is so precisely true.
More often “I choose not to do that today” is more accurate. Most often I find it a fuzzy schedule that can shift focus, sequence and priority several times during a single afternoon. I don’t think this unusual. I expect it happens to everyone in some form.
Each day like that, juggle of competing things to get done, places to be, people to meet, problems to solve …
Easy to lose the intended focus of our day when events and people intervene.
Yesterday was one of those – too many things on the agenda, too many places to be.
When day was done, tasks on my table had grown – some calls on-the-fly resolved a few things, all but one errand accomplished, exhaustion set in and the effort to cook a piece of fish before crashing on my couch was all I could muster at the end of it.
So, for my week in review, what made any difference?
Focus – which seems to be on the mind of so many people who struggle to stay focused.
It is on mine.
Focus, focus, focus ... location, location, location … timing, timing, timing – so many things to focus on. And happy.
Need for focus on happy, happy, happy – while remembering to water grass I want to grow green …
Mark Kolke
column written/ published from Calgary
morning walk: 14C / 57F, overcast, light breeze – our streets all dug up and barricaded as crews work on water lines. Gusta in more of a mood for sniffing and wandering than outright walking so I took my business to the gym …
Reader feedback / comments always welcome:
Aaaah - happiness, grasshopper. I once had the unmitigated audacity to suggest to someone that they could CHOOSE to be happy. That was when my own journey in life hadn't thrown some difficulties in my way that caused me to forget to be grateful for what I DID have and I chose to be unhappy. That, for me, is a highway to happiness - to remember to live with an attitude of gratitude. So, in a way, I do believe it is a conscious choice to wallow in happiness than to wade through despair, even though my advice in that regard may have not been as appreciated as it could have been. And about the "highway to happiness", if you're on it, you're there. If you give someone else directions or better yet, a lift along the way, you got there before you even left. Oscar Wilde said: “Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go”. I strive to be a "wherever" person rather than a "whenever". I have been inspired by your own journey, Mark, in which you chose to be happy when financial and/or relationship situations might make others choose unhappiness. My sister was diagnosed with bipolar disease last year and is usually well managed through chemical prescription. She also chooses a happiness prescription and laughs easily and often. She inspires me as well - her faith is an anchor for her, but she opens her sails to the prevailing winds and decides to lift her face to the sun, rather than anticipate the approaching storm. Having just visited her and my extended family in Ontario for Thanksgiving, I found this quote by George Burns to be apropos: "Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city.” Cheers! CM, Calgary, AB
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