Never Worry If You're Lost

 

I loved this sign in a store window. Who hasn't felt lost at different times in their lives? 
 

I remember someone saying once that if you can't have what you want, then change what you want.  Those words have served me well for many years. Similar wisdom, in this store window in Shrewsbury, England, invited me to stop and look.  Was someone trying to tell me something once again?

I have found that trying to change direction in life is about as easy as trying to flatten a map that has been rolled up and stored in one of those cardboard tubes.  No matter how hard you try to flatten it, it just keeps snapping back until you put something on top of it to weight it down. 

Our own "patterns" are just like that.  We see things in a certain way and do things out of habit and wonder why we just keep traveling in the same direction.  We keep ourselves rolled up, just like the map, at work, in our relationships, our lifestyle choices and perhaps even in our spiritual beliefs.  To change direction may take weeks, months or years of practice and conscious effort depending on how deep the conditioning.  About 6 weeks ago I decided to paint on small gesso boards rather than on my usual large stretched canvases. I'm still uncomfortable.