Marlow's Musings 7/16/23
Insights, adventures and fun stuff from this week.
audio narration by David Marlow
Things my grandmother said.
My parents divorced when I was four. Rare in those days, though an all too common occurrence today.
My widowed grandmother came to live with us to take care of my younger brother and me providing love and stability in the midst of an otherwise chaotic situation.
We were two years apart in age and like any pair of boys, we had our moments.
My grandmother had an interesting communication style and used colorful expressions to convey meaning.
The one most prominent in my memory was when my younger brother and I were whining one day that we wanted something. She calmly told us no and the reason.
We persisted in asking for whatever it was.
“But we want it!”
Now keep in mind, two whinny boys were nothing compared to other things she had dealt with.
My grandmother had lost a sister to the Spanish Flu Pandemic as a 9-year-old, survived the depression as a newlywed, was widowed early with a young daughter, and a host of other things.
Even so, her patience wasn’t infinite and finally having had enough she turned to us and calmly stated…
People in Hell want ice water too but it isn’t going to happen.
Suddenly the impossibility of my request became crystal clear.
Even though I wasn’t getting what I wanted I appreciated the brilliance of the idea she conveyed with that one simple sentence.
She’s gone now though that as well as many other of her sayings still echo in my mind. I might even say a few to my own grandchildren though that particular one has never had to come up. 😉
Word of the Week
experience (n.)
observation as the source of knowledge; actual observation; doing
an event which has affected one through direct personal participation or observation
to be emotionally or aesthetically moved by; feel: to experience beauty.
to participate in or undergo
From the Old French esperience it meant ‘proof,’ and from Latin experientia ‘a trial, proof, experiment’ or ‘knowledge gained by repeated trials.’
With older root meanings to try, test, and venture.
If we learn about ourselves when we experience things then we uncover our authentic selves only by experiencing life.
The process of uncovering your Ikigai requires you to experiment, test, and try to 'experience' your Ikigai rather than wait for it to come to you.
When we try, test, and learn we experience life as our true selves.
Experience in this sense relates to the words 'expert' and 'experiment'. Viewing experiences as experiments - a way of trying things - helps eliminate the fear of failure. We can be open to discovery and understanding.
We give up the unenlightened, ignorant, and ineffective self to live our purpose.
We become more ‘expert’ in understanding ourselves as we experiment and learn.
Ikiquest+
This week in Ikiquest+…
As I mentioned last week many have reached out to share they love to listen to the audio of my posts while enjoying their morning coffee.
The ‘Coffee Meditations’ are going to be a regular part of Ikiquest+!
I created this one for Plus subscribers. this week.
Cheers!
Fun Thing I Came Across This Week
151 Visual Phenomena & Optical Illusions with explanations
Living your Ikigai is about more than a career. I’m impressed by people who put in the time, effort, and passion to share interesting information for nothing more than the joy of doing so.
Take this website from Michael Bach. He displays and explains 150 optical illusions.
It has an old-school, early internet vibe as well.
The image above is an example of the choices and you might notice the fun pair of eyes about a third of the way down. They follow your cursor around as you navigate the website.
Enjoy!
Comment of the Week: Two New Thoughts
Earlier this week I shared about teaching my granddaughter to play chess in The Pterodactyl Gambit. Building her Ikigai muscle early. She insisted the pterodactyl play with us.
Don’t worry, ‘he’s a nice pterodactyl,’ she assured me.
The article prompted this comment from Dave E.
This is such a beautiful story and makes me want to learn chess and have grandkids.
I've not had those two thoughts before!
It made my week.
Final Thought:
We’ve had a dry summer in Wisconsin. It would be easy to lament things like only a few wildflowers blooming.
I got a reminder that there is something in every circumstance if we look for it.
While out on a run I noticed these orange wildflowers for the first time. I’m sure they’ve been there before but are obscured by the myriad of other flowers in this field.
For whatever reason they have bloomed despite the parched conditions. Without the summer drought, I’m not sure I would have noticed them.
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God bless your grandmother as many grandparents are called to step in again at an older age to help raise young children.