Marlow's Musings 7/21/24
Insights, adventures and fun stuff from this week.
Audio narration by David Marlow
Because I’m in the final weeks of finishing my book, I’m revisiting one of my favorite stories about my maternal grandmother. This was also the first Musing with audio narration.
There’s another Language of Purpose exploration with ‘Experience’ and I share one of my favorite granddaughter stories. Finally, a reflection on the value of year-over-year observations.
Quest well!
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.
In case you missed it…
This week’s Ikigai Thought for Today: Dramatic Plot Twist!
It’s all about reframing challenges and disappointments.
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This week's Coffee Contemplation: Walking Each other Home
With everything happening in the world right I felt it was time to reflect on a couple of ideas that represent the starting point for almost any reflection.
Ikiquest+ subscribers can listen to it in audio narration or read the transcription.
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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
Revisiting this story, I shared a while back 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:
The funny thing is we’ve had an unusually wet summer this year. Last year was exactly the opposite. A fun opportunity to recall a special insight from the dry period last year.
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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Excellent insights Dave and with your grandmother of course we have heard the analogy of want and that people in Hell want ice water and will not get it. This impactful image conveys that once someone goes to Hell there are no other chances....you are there. So in life we should be aware there may not be any do-overs with our actions so try to do our best each day and pray for mercy (and also give it) when we do not meet expectations
Oooh Oooh ! Those are milkweed flowers! You’re feeding the monarchs!
And it sounds like Pterodactyl chess is the kind I would love.