Pitfall or Possibility?

all content © 2010 Elizabeth Ohlson

One of my great "Aha" moments came one day when I was simply taking a breath. It occured to me that at that moment in time, every living creature was about to experience the next second simultaneously. No one had an inside track on the next second. I found that liberating for some reason. I felt on equal footing with the human race. No one knew any more than I did what the next second would bring.

I've been listening to a podcast on philosophy. The teacher mentioned that someone had said he often wondered if space came to an end. She explained that if it does, you would reach out your arm and at that point where it came to an end, you wouldn't be able to reach any further. That if that were the case, that space came to an end, it would mean we were in some kind of box. I do not know the answer to this sort of philosophical riddle, but I do know that I prefer to think of the world, or at least my world, as having space without end. Which brings up thoughts of limits and limitations.

I am limited. I know that. I can't fly except in a plane. I cannot read all the books in the Naperville Library. I cannot go without sleep or food or water, etc., for a long period of time. And so on. I know I am limited. But I also know that when I reach an obstacle I can choose to be dumfounded or I can choose to explore ways around it, above it, under it, through it. I may discover ways of lifting, rolling, blasting or in some other way move or remove the obstacle.

I can also befriend the obstacle, see what the obstacle has to teach me, see how my world view is change by the obstacle, see if I am being led in a new direction. I guess what I am discovering about myself is that despite serious loss in my life, I have become more conscious, and also more optimistic.

I can live unconsciously, always doing things the same way, always believing the same things to be true, always expecting people to be the little stereotypes of who I have created them to be, or I can live consciously, continually waking myself up, asking myself questions, blinking and looking in new ways. I can dare to consider new ideas, the wisdom of others, the wisdom of the ages, the wisdom of the muses and the fates, continually enlarging my understanding. That is, of course, what I have chosen.