Exploring The Downspouts Of Life
There is no long-term happiness in being shortsighted.
I heard a rustle in the downspout when I joined Del on our back porch for our pre-dawn chat. Del said that a chipmunk had been in the gutter, and he heard it slip into the downspout.
I suppose she was exploring. However, she appeared stuck because we could hear her slide further down the spout.
Most downspouts empty onto the top of the ground, but this particular one ended inside a garden and had a cover at the end, so we knew we might have to take the downspout apart to rescue her once morning arrived.
Has this ever happened to you?
Perhaps you were happily exploring life when you noticed something interesting or enticing and slid down into a slippery, dark, enclosed life hole.
I know that I have, more than once.
When morning arrived, we took the downspout apart, and Miss Chipmunk was no longer there. We marveled at her creativity, trust, and patience in climbing back up that dark, slippery spout to find her way out.
Looking back on my life downslides, I can see that I sometimes climbed back up and out on my own, and sometimes, people came along and took the problem apart for me so I could be free.
We could say, "Well, hey, Miss Chipmunk, what were you thinking? Don’t go exploring those places that you don’t know about.”
Yes, perhaps she will never try out a downspout again.
However, what would life be for a curious chipmunk if she didn’t continually try new ideas and places?
Suppose she slides down or gets stuck somewhere else.
Wouldn’t she be able to draw on this experience and trust even more, use even more creativity, and know even more patience because she has had the experience of success?
What would life be for us if we didn’t try out new ideas?
Just because there have been times when we appear to have made wrong, silly, dangerous, crazy, and unworkable choices, does that mean we should close the doors and windows of life and limit our experiences and possibilities?
Actually, it’s the reverse. We can look back on life and know that we learned, were cared for, and were safe even when it appeared as if we were not.
We all know people who have closed their lives down bit by bit.
I remember meeting a woman whose life consisted of moving from her living room to the refrigerator and occasionally going to the grocery store.
This was not by necessity but by choice.
She had closed herself into this limited life on purpose to try to feel safe, which she didn’t anyway.
Suggesting even the slightest change in the schedule or ideas for her life only made her more stubborn.
Yes, we will sometimes make mistakes.
Yes, we will have to change our minds about what we are doing.
Yes, we will sometimes feel the pain of sliding down the downspouts of life.
However, without those mistakes, changes, and explorations, we are not using the gifts and talents that make us the expression and action of the Divine.
There is no long-term happiness in being shortsighted.
Life teems with ideas, experiences, joy, and what might appear as unhappy situations.
And yet, when we shift our perception about those occasional slides down the downspout, we can see that they too taught us about the beauty and ultimate consistency of life.
Life changes in order to be ongoing, life asks us to let go, life demands that we move on, life is the experience—even in our limited ability to see it—of infinity.
Oh, sure. We know the saying, “Doing something over and over again the same way and expecting different results, is insanity.”
Okay, so don’t explore the downspout the same way next time; do it differently. Take your life lessons with you. Don’t leave them at the door or pack them away to never be used again.
Be like Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, and use your insight and wisdom to get all you can out of life. Talk to people, listen to ideas, and move into the fullness of life that is yours because you are, in Truth, the activity of life.
Anything less, and we begin to experience all the versions of atrophy with symptoms like confusion, depression, anger, and loneliness.
Miss Chipmunk slid down the spout and climbed back out. She had acquired a storehouse of wisdom, a wonderful story to share, and a few lessons to teach those who would listen.
The same applies to each of us. Yes, gather that wisdom and tell those stories. We are listening for your voice!
Oh yes, we eventually installed gutter covers, keeping our curious wanderers safer.
PS
The Free Daily Nudge # 378 fits right into this idea, “Life is like a dance. It is best to be committed to the feeling and detached from the performance. I dance!”
Like that saying? Here are more ways to see or wear it.