Newsletter the Eighteenth

You know that scene in horror movies where everyone in the audience just wants to yell (and sometimes does) "turn around! It's right behind you!" While I'm no fan of horror, I do love that phrase. We all feel that sometimes, right? That we just need to turn around and see what's happening behind us, for better or worse…

Well, I had a chance to try this out recently, with a very happy result. See, about 18 years ago, when we moved to this house in the woods and I set up a cozy home office, I arranged my desk to face a wall. I'm not entirely sure what I was thinking, but I believe it had to do with focus. Like, if I'm facing a wall I won't see any distractions through that pesky window behind me.

Isn't it funny how perfectly reasonable decisions can come back to haunt you? So, you'll recall that I bought a new desk recently. And I decided to try something new: to turn around and see what had been behind me all these years. Yes, I decided to set the desk facing the window instead.

The result is as obvious and predictable as in those horror movies; except in my case, I'm seeing chipmunks and birds, not monsters, and it's sheer delight. Why did no one ever tell me that it's so pretty outside?!

What decisions did you make that led you to face a wall? Have you turned around recently to get a different perspective, or try a different way of working??

Yummmmmm…

Everything is food. (No, I’m not on some starvation diet, where I see food everywhere. I really mean it: everything in the universe is food.) And I don’t mean just meat and plants — the words we read, the photographs we see, the ideas shared in schools and churches and around the kitchen table… that’s all food for thought, without protein and carbohydrate, and yet nutritious and sustaining in its own way.?

We ingest them, then digest them, breaking them down, making them part of us. Food — whether it's physical or mental — helps us grow, strengthens what’s already there, or sometimes makes us sick.

Everything is food: Animals and fungus and plants and ideas and words and images and sounds… a mother’s touch, a friend’s betrayal, the money in your pocket, the rocks under foot which will eventually be food for the convection oven of Earth’s mantle…

What food are you choosing to put in your body and your head? What food are you choosing to share with the world?

Are You Sure?

I have a neighbor whose beliefs pretty much exemplify everything I hate. So when she suggested something to me recently, I immediately discounted it. And yet… after a day or two, her words kept popping up in my head, and I realized she had a point.

More precisely, I saw she was partially right… and I was partially right. And I realized that — as much as it pained me to admit it — a combination of our ideas was almost certainly better than either alone.

It's tiring work to step back and admit that in pretty much every situation, I'm only partially correct.

Take a moment and reflect on anything you believe, or think you know to be true. Can you find a way in which it might actually not be black-and-white, but rather gray? If you can't, you're not trying hard enough.

Thank You!

I enjoy sharing my musings… and I enjoy hearing yours! Feel free to follow this newsletter, share it with a friend,?follow me on LinkedIn, and send me feedback. You can always reach me at?david@creativepro.com