Resetting the Compass in the last days – Day 28
There are things that go bump in the night and things that go Whomp! in my life. Some things that cross my path can be put away, left to niggle around the brain for another day. Once in while something is dropped splat in the middle of my path and there is no putting it away for a rainy day. The only way to move on is to pick it up and carry it with me.
Today I was glancing through yesterday’s paper and there it was, smack in the middle of my horoscope. Lovely Leo laid a real gem on me today:
“A new beginning is possible if you are willing to work with another person’s thought process.”
Subtle, simple, but there’s no skirting around this one. Remaining quiet and doing nothing when a problem arises is the hardest thing for me to do. For others, that is the easiest thing to do. Two people, different MO’s to deal with life’s issues. Sometimes I need to stop thinking I know it all, see the big picture, know all the reasons and the whys and the wherefores, and therefore it’s easy to clean this up and put it away, so let’s get going. Maybe I need to enter into the other person’s thought process. For once, do more good by putting “me” and my MO aside. “Work with the other person’s thought process.”
I took my new found wisdom on a beach walk. Rounding the horn of Scorton Creek, a most beautiful place where the marsh empties itself into the bay, an old familiar song came on my iPod. For over a year I directed the words of this song at another person. Suddenly, today, I let the words come at me from this other person. The perspective changed as dramatically as the shifting sands in front of me move about with each new tide.
Further along, walking down the beach turning for home, I began my usual beach glass search. Today I found two pieces. They still had some jaggedness to their edges and by rights I should have given them back to the sea for further polishing. I decided to pocket them for what they told me today – it’s okay to be unfinished and retain a few rough edges. I am a person who loves everything neatly tied up in packages. I love closure. I love everything set neatly in boxes and categorized on the shelves of my mind, no loose strings hanging anywhere. Yet, other people are perfectly happy in a haphazard closet. They don’t care about neat, organized rows. They like things unfinished, boxes open and overflowing. It gives them a sense of freedom, while it just gives me a headache. Maybe I need to let some boxes stay open for awhile. Let some strings hang. Really try to understand the sense of freedom in that. “Work with another person’s thought process.”
Do you think this is really what’s meant by “walking in another person’s shoes”? I always thought that meant just having some empathy and understanding for what others are going through. Maybe there is another, deeper, level to this old overused cliche.
And so, as another day goes by, I’m wrapping my arms around “A new beginning is possible if you are willing to work with another person’s thought process.” and carrying it home with me (it’s damn heavy and I keep having to stop and reposition it, but I’ll get it home one way or another), and…. I have written.
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