Cleaned under the sofa cushions lately? Pennies. Popcorn. Peanuts. No telling what might be found! Or under the driver’s seat of the car. Last month’s French fry. A random receipt. Quarters! How about the far reaches of the hall closet untouched for years? That missing mitten. A misplaced toy for the kitten. And there’s that forgotten flashlight! Treasures, not so much. Remnants of life on the fly. Relics of neglect. Fun adventures nonetheless when we do the deep dive!
We tend to avoid the deep dives into the caches and stashes of our lives until we just about have to go there. When moving to a smaller home, whether house or apartment, some things simply can’t go along. We sift. We sort. We shred. We haul. We hold on. When a family member dies, those yet alive engage in that agonizing and sometimes divisive process of dealing with the stuff left behind. We shuffle. We sell. We donate. We take. In short, we make choices about what matters most to us. What is treasured. What perhaps has become more burden than joy.
Oh, but then there’s the deep dive within ourselves. Perhaps more vigorously avoided than the caches and stashes of stuff. Why do we do what we do and in the way we do it? A calendar chocked full of commitments we half-heartedly said yes to. A schedule that deprives us of sleep and exercise, hindering our personal well-being. And just why, do tell, will we find ourselves at the altar of the refrigerator seeking satisfaction for a gnawing emptiness in the deep darkness after midnight? To examine what motivates or drives us isn’t exactly a fun adventure but, as the wise Socrates allegedly said, “an unexamined life is not worth living.”
We may beg to differ with the sage. Isn’t it simpler to bumble along, bouncing from one thing to another, careening about without a care? Haven’t we learned that lesson well, that the best laid plans… well, they fall apart or take unexpected twists or turn into the worst concocted chaos imaginable?
Much may be said about our “moral compass,” something we all have within us whether we’re conscious of it or not. Some would say that communities and countries have them too. And many who believe in the reality of them might argue that they’re sometimes and for seasons out of whack. When we do the deep dive and peek at our interior guide, what do we discover? Remnants of childhood experiences. Relics of adventures gone awry. Treasures shining through as we choose to do what we do in the way we do it.
Comentarios