Tuesday, February 23, 2021

Gaps in the Mesh

Wintering

“There are gaps in the mesh of the everyday world,
and sometimes they open you,
and you fall through them into Somewhere Else.
And Somewhere Else runs at a different pace
to the here and now,
where everyone else carries on."


by Katherine May
from her book Wintering:
The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times

&
her interview with Krista Tippett
"How ‘Wintering’ Replenishes"

May's "gaps in the mesh" remind me of this
old favorite from Grey's Anatomy,
Season 1, Episode 6:
"A couple hundred years ago Benjamin Franklin shared with the world the secret of his success. Never leave that 'til tomorrow, which you can do today. This is the man who discovered electricity; you'd think we'd pay more attention to what he had to say. I don't know why we put things off, but if I had to guess it has a lot to do with fear. Fear of failure, fear of pain, fear of rejection. Sometimes the fear if just of making a decision. Because... What if you're wrong? What if you make a mistake you can't undo? Whatever it is we're afraid of, one thing holds true: That by the time the pain of not doing the thing gets worse than the fear of doing it, it can feel like we're carrying around a giant tumor. And you thought I was speaking metaphorically... 'The early bird catches the worm.' 'A stitch in time saves nine.' 'He who hesitates is lost.' We can't pretend we haven't been told. We've all heard the proverbs, heard the philosophers, heard our grandparents warning us about wasted time; heard the damn poets urging us to seize the day. Still, sometimes we have to see for ourselves. We have to make our own mistakes. We have to learn our own lessons. We have to sweep today's possibility under tomorrow's rug until we can't anymore. Until we finally understand for ourselves what Benjamin Franklin meant. That knowing is better than wondering. That waking is better than sleeping. And that even the biggest failure, even the worst most intractable mistake, beats the hell out of not trying."
Christmas ~ Season 2, Episode 12 ~ Under the Tree

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