TAKE-AWAY - Wednesday Mar. 2, 2011
today’s Musing written and published from Cranston in south- east Calgary, near the Bow River valley
Morning walk: -23C/-9F, warmer! than yesterday, no ice-fog, deep freeze life continues (how much longer?), makes me wonder why we’ve invented this notion of outdoor toileting for dogs and exercise for middle-aged men – it all seems so uncivilized on days like this.
Love your day!
Please, love it, hold it dear.
It may not be the greatest of days – or it might. Consider how bad you would feel if you didn’t have it, have this day.
In that thought, I am suddenly very grateful for this day. Suddenly cold, miserably cold, doesn’t seem so bad. Suddenly, tasks and schedule don’t seem so onerous.
With that thought in mind – in your interactions with the world today, as you meet new people and talk with familiar ones, what is your take-away message?
You know what I mean.
When you spend time with someone, when you explain yourself and your motives, when you spill out your stories to an old friend, or to a new one, what is it you leave behind for them, what is it you let them take away?
There is always a taking away, but that doesn’t mean we feel something is taken away from us. I know, each time I open up – fresh meat or an old wound – I reveal far more of myself to myself than I do to anyone else. This is difficult. It is good. I recommend it.
I suggest you try it today; you can do it over coffee, over the phone – or be like a New Yorker and do it to a total stranger on a 40 storey elevator milk-run (yes, they do that there) and you will reveal more than a riverbed in a flood.
Every day can be just like any other, but there is always – within in – an opportunity for Lots & Found moments; not loss, but lost, not finding but found.
Being lost, in the middle - of the day, the room, the conversation – is likely the time and place we are most likely to find what we’ve been missing, to realize we had it all along.
Like Einstein’s words on this: ‘Stand still. The trees ahead and the bush beside you are not lost.’
Take away everything - there we are – just us. Justice. Yes. Just us. Aren’t we beautiful when we strip away all that is just stuff, leaving what is real. Here we are.
~~~
How many yesterdays, how many tomorrows – do we approach without preparation, without a plan? Some, like today – plan, destination, list of must do things – everything else waits. No flexibility, no time for wandering off to other things, no chance for whim or distraction – I have a plan for the next three days to be in a seat, at a hotel in NE Calgary from 8:30 to 4:30 . . . being taught some things, I’m there to learn.
~~~
In response to PL: Yes, to let go. Let gone. Of the illusion – and I’ll hold on to the truth, and I struggle still to grab the strands that were, separate them from that which wasn’t’.
~~~
SAILING ALONG, ALONE
Aye
eye
witness
I witness
witness I am
witness
just witness
you
witness my eye
witnessing you
eye
aye.
~~~
Since starting March 21, 2010, I’ve been writing a poem a day for inclusion with this column - sometimes they are connected to the theme du jour, just as often not. Inspiration comes riding in the window on the breeze .... check out the YEAR OF POETRY: archived poetry
~~~
Mark Kolke
314,468M~~
March 1 - MISSED COMMUNICATION - Comments Received
Mark sometimes we just simply have to quietly let-go, PL, Calgary, AB
February 28 - TWO BOOK PROJECT - Comments Received
Ah, welcome to my world! Truth is tough to define, just as hard as it is to define the word "ethics" itself, because truth depends on an individual's background, culture and experience. I facilitate this discussion every day - and the conversation is fascinating. All the different viewpoints and perspectives that exist can create a very lively and engaging conversation. Who's right? We all are! I certainly hope and believe truth is alive and well - and we can keep it growing stronger by continuing to foster the conversation and challenging everyone to determine what the word means for themselves. Regards, MM, Phoenix, AZ
