03/15/2010: "Gravitation"

I want to be carefree, to while away the day in reading, writing and reflection.

But I am cumbered about with many cares that tether my mind even when my body breaks free.

I am engaged in stimulating and useful work. It stretches my abilities and demonstrates a capacity I didn't know I had. The feedback is good. The impact is measurable. My bank account is healthier than it's been in a very long time.

On the other hand there is a small part of me that wonders what I'm doing and why I'm doing so much of it, and wouldn't I rather be doing nothing at all than this?

I expect it is part of the human condition, to gravitate so easily from gratitude, whatever our state. But I would learn to be content with the state of things; to think less of the nothing that sometimes tempts me to let it all go, hop over the fence and fly away.

Three morals in this story:

1. It is hard to strike a pleasing balance between purpose and pleasure, effort and ease.
2. Work exerts a strong gravitational pull and would make us all planets in orbit around it.
3. Freedom is the capacity to hold your own centre and chart your own course.

Yours with creativity and imagination,
Darlene