Being on the trail yesterday at mid-day was a rather unusual event for us. Historically, the trails are more enjoyable early morning because of temperature and people, but with the clock going back and a 25th hour of the day to play with, we decided what the hell.
The temperature was stunning anyway and we avoided the people as much as we could, deriding those that made noise and making directional decisions based on where the people weren’t.
That time of the day and the trail we ended up on, changed the mix of creatures and what they were doing as opposed to what I normally see first thing in the morning.
There was almost no hunting and eating and lots of resting and catching the rays. So, in other words, there were a lot of cold-blooded creatures out there. I can’t remember ever seeing more turtles in one day, for example. I thought they only came out on Tuesday (Turtle Tuesday lol). But they were there in abundance.
There was even the tiniest of turtles on display. I A little guy no bigger than a couple of inches. He deserved special mention so I am putting his image first here:
Not that there is anything wrong with putting images at the end of the blog; which is where the rest are! Enjoy.
Anyway, it was actually a couple of these images that gave me the specific thought that has dogged my mind and become the topic for today’s blog. You will see the gorgeous alligator lying full length on the log (hence reflection) and the jumping spider at the very end with the fake face on his abdomen (hence deception).
Over the years, I have been very big on the notion of self-reflection. It has been a mainstay in my approach to life. I believe it helps us grow as humans, where we draw from our past and improve ourselves along the journey.
If you don’t do it, then do. Take a moment and look at who you are and how you got here. Look at the things you have done and the people that have played a role in your life to date and try to get to the point where you know who you are and why you do what you do.
It is quite a liberating feeling.
But (isn’t there always a “but”?) be careful when you do this that you aren’t inherently unhappy with life at the moment. Deception can live in our memories and make the past seem better than the present and it can truly unravel us if we spend to much time comparing one to the other.
It is why I hate seeing pictures of our past. Photographs where everyone is smiling and the times look wonderful. Yet, we all know that chances are someone said “Smile” as the picture was taken and so these images are hardly an accurate representation of the lives we were living.
The problem with being inherently unhappy with our present is that we look for happiness elsewhere in our lives and so we become even more dissatisfied when we find it in our past and begin to long for the “good ol’ days”.
I have been stuck in a bad place for quite a while now and it has really hampered my ability to draw from the past where I wasn’t such a failure. Finding success in your past is hugely counterproductive to our sense of self-worth and when we find ourselves in a bad present, the place to look for success and happiness is actually in the future.
We need to find a path that we think might lead us onto more solid ground and happiness, and imagine ourselves in that moment. Give ourselves a feeling of happiness based on the person we might hope to be and not the person we once were.
This is how we establish a goal and a forward looking view that will ultimately point us in a better direction.
Happiness should never be just a memory.
… just a thought!
