Wandering About It

Not all those who wander are lost. -J.R.R. Tolkien

Despite what the current weather is indicating, Spring has once again officially arrived, at least in the northern hemisphere. You can smell the green fresh scent of anticipation in the air and the birds begin their loud chirpy songs in the early a.m. as they rejoice in the approaching dawn. It’s known as a season of growth, rebirth, and transformation. It could also mean cleaning out or donating the excess, creating more space, and generally tidying things up. It’s that time of year when we might have the urge to take stock of our lives along with a sometimes vague sense of dissatisfaction or longing when we get that feeling that change is imminent. There could also be a sudden urge for a change of venue; perhaps some new furniture, a new vocation, or a new image.

How about a new way of looking at things, perhaps a different perspective altogether? There can also be an urge to be somewhere else. It’s time to travel if only in our minds. If only for a moment, getting away from our current situations can expand our place in the world. We may be a bit claustrophobic or near-sighted about ourselves not knowing that the way forward is right in front of us. We need the ultimate possibility of discovery now more than ever.

Call it wanderlust. My walks have recently become more frequent and longer in duration; the outdoors beckons me out of my cozy lair more often. I have been revisiting some favourite areas in the large, wooded park next to where I live, wandering hidden paths while watching for emerging flora and fauna. I have also been retracing my memory, particularly in the neighbourhoods of NYC, virtually online, through photos, and simply in my head. I can wander in any beloved large city that I have been to whenever I want and still feel the way I felt back when. Seemingly aimless walking can be a meditation of sorts, a way of shedding uncertainty and finding a sense of balance. It can reintroduce us to a perhaps lost sense of affinity in our lives, to experience the joy of simplicity and connection.

There’s a point where the past meets the present and the remembering can be an epiphany of sorts, a marker of what we have accomplished, and what the next move can be. It can open up that important sense of possibility in our lives and fuel our imaginations, to let ourselves go and see where we can wind up. We might be in a state of flux, particularly considering how much the world seems to have changed in the past three years. This has affected people to varying degrees and has left the big question of so now what looming over us.

It’s often said that familiarity breeds contempt but it’s the familiar, no matter how stressful or vapid that can feel more secure than the unknown. It can also feel like an invisible barrier between here and there, close yet so far away, like being in a glass box. We can feel trapped by the same old routines that used to be fulfilling. The reason that negative familiarity, those situations that just don’t feel right anymore, can be difficult to let go of is usually fear of the unknown. What if I changed this or left that and it didn’t work out? What if indeed.

The world appears to have drastically changed with new challenges appearing regularly. Society seems to be reinventing itself as it goes along and with this attitudes will need adjusting and a revision of where we see ourselves as time goes by. Our belief systems may have also altered leaving a feeling of much-needed adjustment. Nothing seems like it was before the pandemic began because we simply see and feel it all differently. The balance has shifted but, even though problems have been more pronounced in recent years, life has always been about constant change. It’s how we reach for it, observe it, and ultimately react to it that matters. How we make it work for us. Until then, let’s remember that anything can be possible and let’s keep wandering about it.

Estimates suggest that healthy adults spend up to 50 per cent of waking life mind-wandering. When our minds wander, we step back from ongoing events, reassess what has just happened, and imagine alternative possibilities for what we might do next.’  _Jennifer Windt, a senior research fellow in philosophy at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

Post #104 by Jude Gorgopa, Reinvention Consultant and the Founder of Clout Et Cetera and The Fundamentals of Clout. Connect: judegorgopa@gmail.com & LinkedIn.