Writing prompt: Are you waiting for the right moment to do that exact thing that you want to be doing? Learning? Exploring?
If you are waiting, stop. And then start. Start. Do something. Do anything. Do one little thing that will point your compass in what you think might be the right direction. Point it in any direction. After all, the Universe has no map. There is no GPS for navigating Infinity. And it is all out there — all right here — just waiting for you to start. At the very least, put on a blindfold, spin yourself around a few times, and start moving. You never know which donkey is going to to get a start from you pinning a tail onto its hindquarters.
Simple for me to say. I was talking to someone today who is wanting to lose weight. She said, “Something can be simple but still so hard to do.” I thought that this was a really profound statement. It can be both. But it need not be. Or does it?
A small-scale example: I would love to have one of those garages in which I can park my truck. The outlines of wrenches and saws and C-clamps all Sharpied on a piece of pegboard. Bicycles hanging from racks. Holiday paraphernalia stacked in clear, plastic tubs out of the way in the corner. It all sounds so lovely. And so simple. And so hard, too.
Instead, it is all quite the jumble. Not entirely unmanageable. I can get to the fuse box and can find a hammer when I want to hang a picture on the wall. I don’t know. I am most likely being too hard on myself. I tell the people who come to visit, “Don’t look in the garage!” but it does indeed seem like a paradox to be embarrassed by my own stuff. There is something about this that doesn’t quite resonate with a sense of balance. It is like wanting to distance myself from the choices I have made.
I clearly do not feel that having an amazingly organized garage is going to make me a better human being. And it is not important enough to forfeit a sunny afternoon down by the bay. And the time it would take to sift through the dust, memories, cobwebs, and paperwork isn’t worth not meeting friends for dinner or spending some time playing piano or taking my easel out to the back deck for some color therapy.
Is starting (and stopping) all about listening to our priorities? Is what we truly want so evident and transparent to our Sense of Priority, that we don’t really have to think in any conscious way when we point the compass in a new direction. Some call it procrastination, but I am wondering if procrastination is nothing more than your soul allowing your priorities to have control of the throttle. My overall conclusion: procrastination is possibly being unfairly reviled by those who have all of the plans mapped out. I am thinking that it is okay sometimes to turn off the Garmin and just do some meandering.
It is tricky to avoid mixing my metaphors when it comes to the universal sense of time and life lessons. A compass, a map, GPS, a blindfold, a game about a donkey, an airplane’s cockpit. No wonder I lose my path — my trajectory. I’m all over the place! Yet . . .all of these signs along the road. All of these maps that point us in this direction and that direction. . . when all of what we truly and most dearly want stems from our inner world — our soul, our conscience, our spirit.
So, what is it that you are aiming for? What is it that would be just so much fun to be experiencing right now? Be fearless, put your compass in your pocket, don your blindfold, pick up your thumb tack and paper donkey tail, spin around, and start pinning that tail on whatever suits your fancy. Pull back on the throttle and fly. You never know. Truly. The Universe has a distinct way of rewarding our sometimes-fallible attempts to better enrich and experience life.
Thomas Edison said it so beautifully: “To invent you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.” Love this! This man would not be judging my garage or my sense of priority! His words put my garage into perspective and get me outdoors on a sunny day. Time to quit beating myself up, allow my imagination to soar, and enjoy inventing with the “pile of junk” in the garage.
The Unseen Words Project 