Learning.
"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them." - Albert Einstein
Episode 25.
I heard someone say recently, that we are only really learning when we are surprised...
That is an interesting way to look at things... surprise... it takes away the "shock" or "abrupt devastation" that we sometimes seem to face in this unpredictable world, as unpredictable humans, interacting with other unpredictable humans.
It makes sense, that if something doesn't surprise us, then it's just fitting into our view of the world; consistent with what we already knew...we didn't actually change any brain cells. Maybe we added some information, but we didn't really learn anything.
But the SURPRISE.
Ah, yes.
Then we learn.
Then we are catapulted into uncertainty and the learning that comes from navigating the uncharted territory; figuring out the path...
When things are going smoothly and we think life is unfolding as it "should", and then, wham... surprise... turns out...
Learning.
When things are in turmoil and some small decision lands you on an unexpected path to sweet bliss...
Learning.
When you thought what was, wasn't. Basically 2020...
Learning.
We can see this as disaster, or we can see it as surprise, a shift, a pivot. This is not a Pollyanna, positive thinking shift... but possibly a personal challenge of adopting a lens of different perspective- being able to hold both sides of an argument; acknowledging the grip of fear; a move toward radical self-inquiry; a questioning of our self-imposed limitations; a re-focus on present over the fluctuations of past and future.
We don't always have to be learning and growing.
We are not always faced with a major life challenge.
Life is often nice on cruise control, in a predictable flow.
But inevitably, life could hand you a big "surprise", and I am coming to learn that we can't always think our way out of it...especially if we didn't think our way into it.
And so we learn. We shift. We adapt. We adopt. We choose.
Here's where I say, Love is the answer. Typical Jess. No surprise there.
I am coming up with this answer because I keep getting those life learning surprises.
Loving through them all. It's what matters.
Little Shifts...Big Love.
Hug and Hold. Even if it's from a distance. Hug and Hold.
Love,
Jess
Not Perfect. Not Personal. Not Permanent. Click for Quick Meditation
“At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.”
― T.S. Eliot
Do it all with Love. Nothing is promised. But everything is workable.
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