Why is it that we feel so pressured and pushed to seek more? Do more? Be more? Do big and incredible things. Reach for ‘up there’. What if your ‘self’ is more content in place than size? Is actually repelled by what everyone else wants. What they have and seek. Isn’t simply being as close to real and true to yourself an applaudable mark of personal success? Isn’t that the greatest thing you could hope to find – and give. To tread your own path and not on others on your way – being kind in life and journey? To STOP. Think. Question. Not conform. To have little or no idea where you’re going but have enough of that childlike sense of wonder to embrace the mystery. Explore. Be free of the constraint of; “When I grow up I want to be….” And just be? Which brings us back to the question…. “Do you want what you think you want?” Picture by Maurice Sendak who wrote and illustrated the book, ‘Where the wild things are’.
They used to tank Cod from Alaska, all the way to China. They’d keep ’em in vats in the ship. By the time the Cod fish reached China, the flesh was moosh. And tasteless. So this guy came up with the idea of, that if you put these Cods in these big vats, put some Catfish in with ’em, and the Catfish would keep the Cod agile. And there are those people who are Catfish in life. They keep you on your toes. They keep you guessing. They keep you fresh. And I thank God for the Catfish, ’cause we’d be droll, boring and dull if we didn’t have somebody nipping at our fin.”
Sometimes Rose couldn’t account for the hours in her day .
Although Rose meets each day with a slight brief, she often drifts off, leaving her with no recollection of time gone astray – and where she was when it went. She relishes this sweet form of freedom and the fruitful outcomes that arise from times when she does nothing of great significance at all – except maybe concentrating on her breathing. Long Live Rose.
Footnote: In a world where the rush to do, to see, to be, is so overwhelming at times, Rose’s footsteps are calm ones to follow – along with her ‘away with the birds’ philosophy that defies the more uptight others view of this being laziness.
