Something New from Socrates

Socrates had something here. Even as I looked out my window this morning in shock at the howling wind and blowing snow screaming through the crimson leaves still clinging to the bushes off the patio, I knew I shouldn’t fight it. I knew I should accept it. I’m in a new realm now and I have to build anew.

Tides turn. Seasons change. The Earth revolves around our star, The Sun, and the night will follow the day as surely as the bread will land peanut butter side down.

Don’t fight it. Build on it.

Sometimes, building the new involves changing our perspective. We can bemoan the cold or look at it as a way for Nature to control all the bugs that pester us during summer. We can shake our fists at the black skies at 5:30 at night in November or consider the deep gloom as a chance to regroup and slow down.

Changing perspectives is relatively easy when compared to the next definition of building the new: jumping feet first into a whole new way of being. Maybe that cold weather is simply too much and you decide to move to New Mexico. Or maybe that job you’ve had for years cannot be salvaged and you must discover a new career path. Perhaps a relationship you thought was the top asset to your well being is cut and you need to re-plot your course toward a totally different port.

The key is to be open to that change, whatever size it ends up being. That’s hard. Sometimes we’re so invested in what was, we can’t see the potential for what could be. Some kids hang on the monkey bars day in and day out not because they really enjoy it, but because they are blind to, or afraid to try, something new. The student, just like any one of us, needs open eyes to see and open ears to hear.

We can each be the mouthpiece for change- for ourselves and for each other. The reward is something new.