It occurs to me that curiosity used to be one of my most notable features. I’ve let most of my time and energy be claimed by other things for so long, I’ve sort of forgotten to be curious. I still get there, from time to time, but curiosity hasn’t been my default state of mind lately.
So, I’m thinking: I’ve gotten good enough at letting things be such-as-they-are, it’s probably time to refocus on wondering how-things-could-be. You know, set aside expectations and pre-judgements, and remember what it’s like to always be open to unexpected possibilities.
After all, I still love surprises. It’s time to let life start surprising me again.
Nynia in the Now 
Well here’s an interesting thought: if you’re expecting surprises, would life still be surprising? 😉
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Well, yeah! It’s once I know WHICH surprises to expect that it’d get predictable. Like… say you give Santa your whole list of things you want, but you know you’ll get only a couple presents under the tree. Which from the list will they be? Or does Santa have something you’d have always wanted, if only you knew it was out there? 🙂
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“Or does Santa have something you’d have always wanted, if only you knew it was out there?” But if you never really knew it was out there, how would you have known that you would’ve wanted it? Does desire come by impulse, then? Maybe it does, but sometimes the best things happen when you least expect it, I guess! But keeping hopes up just milks the surprise bit 😛
(Just expressing my opinions; bear with me!)
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Oh that’s a great question! I don’t think I phrased it the way I meant…
What I meant to say was exactly that: I didn’t know it was out there, so I didn’t know I wanted it, so I didn’t think to ask for it, so I didn’t expect it to come my way!
I have a great example. Several years ago, I was completely done with the life I was in at the time. Fortunately, I chose a job search over suicide. (That was not a serious option, but my medical health at the time was putting me in a bad space.) Well, ANOTHER job search. I tried seeking out tons of opportunities, several of them I thought would be absolutely perfect. Out of the blue, a recruiter called me for something I never would have thought of on my own. I wasn’t even sure it would be for me. But it worked out, and I am having a fantastically successful career with people who love and support me. I never thought this was possible, not from the situation I was in at the time.
I knew it was time for a change, and I knew that life would being me the change I needed. I was practicing open-minded curiosity, after having had previous attempts utterly, dishearteningly crushed several times over the previous years. I held the expectation though, that when it was time, I’d get something fantastic. I did, and I was still surprised!
It’s not an easy thing, keeping up hopeful expectation for “the right path” without hanging onto particular expectations about what that path should be. It’s the whole point of me blogging here, practicing that. Because… well it’s dang hard. It’s hard to even keep in the head straight. And harder to communicate!
Anyway, I hope that helps some with what I was trying to say. I love your thoughts about it, please tell me more that you think of! ❤
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If you want answers, You must first as the questions. I believe if you live in the ”Here and Now”, ”The immediate present.” and meditate a couple times of day to start and get past the highway of garbage in your cognitive thoughts, go inwards where you find stillness, I believe all your questions can be answered. Namaste
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I completely agree, thank you so much for sharing this comment! For me, the difficult thing for the past few years hasn’t been so much finding the answers to my questions… it’s been finding the right questions to answer!
I do find myself feeling so much better when I make the time in the morning, afternoon, and evening to take just a few minutes to do a bit of yoga and center my thoughts beyond the “conscious daydream” of my daily life. But I’ve also found myself running into old piled-up recycling within my subconscious thoughts to work through, in areas I thought I’d already cleared out! That can be a little disheartening, finding that my inner park needs to be picked up a bit before I can sit in clear stillness, but it does also keep me in practice of learning and growing beyond my cluttered past. 🙂
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It wouldn’t let me do it so is short I’ll type it for you.
Watch your thoughts;
They become words.
Watch your words;
They become actions.
Watch your actions;
They become habits.
Watch your habits;
They become your character.
Watch your character;
It becomes your Destiny. By Lao Tzu
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Thank you for sharing that fantastic translation, it puts it so well! ❤
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[…] did sort of ask for it, didn’t […]
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[…] rather than someone else’s, that’s enough to make me stop and think. While I practice opening myself up to possibilities and acknowledging the interconnectedness of our lives within our world, this adds another layer of […]
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