Different perspectives

One of the great pleasure of hairdressers is the guilt-free reading of trashy magazines. In one such mag, I was reading about getting into an exercise rut – doing the same thing each time you cycle or swim or run or do a workout. Staying safe. Not pushing yourself.

Isn’t that true of just about everything we do? It’s so much easier to stay safe, to do the predictable, to BE predictable, to be sure of not failing. The alternative can be scary. It can be stressful. It can lead to sleepless nights and worry and questioning and all those other things we do to ourselves to keep ourself safe. After all, these biological processes were inbuilt into we humans for a reason – so as we would stay alive. In our modern world it’s not so much our physical being that is threatened, but our reputation and our sense of self-worth.

So once we get over ourselves and realise that we are not in any physical danger, is there really any reason NOT to try something different? We humans are good at adventure too. We’re curious about what’s over the next hill or across the seas. It’s this curiosity that is one of our greatest assets. Without it we’d never explore – either our internal or external landscapes.

With these thoughts banging around my head I’m about to embark on an adventure to be elsewhere, with different people, with different influences and try some new stuff. It will be a mixture of the familiar and the new.

The familiar is powerful, and I know I will miss it at times. This quote captures some of that:

“Oh, the comfort – the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person – having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.” Dinah Craik, A Life for a Life, 1859

And while this is powerful, Keith Johnstone’s quote is a reminder of the value of adventure:

“There are people who prefer to say ‘Yes’, and there are people who prefer to say ‘No’. Those who say ‘Yes’ are rewarded by the adventures they have, and those who say ‘No’ are rewarded by the safety they attain.”

I’m looking forward to the adventures I’ll be having.