Albert Einstein said "Creating a new theory is not like
destroying an old barn and erecting a skyscraper in its
place. It is rather like climbing a mountain, gaining new and
wider views, discovering unexpected connections between our
starting points and its rich environment. But the point from
which we started out still exists and can be seen, although it
appears smaller and forms a tiny part of our broad view gained
by the mastery of the obstacles on our adventurous way up."
Much like our personal growth as we stretch from one stage of
life to another.
As your view widens, you awaken yourself to exploring and
discovering new paths. New avenues. New opportunities.
Awakening is being keenly alert. For me, it showed up something
like this last Saturday. Walking slowly through Barnes and Noble,
I catch the title of a book: Poetry.....by Michelangelo? While looking
up a definition in a dictionary, I happen past another definition:
Zephyr. (a warm, gentle breeze.) Never did I know its name though
I have felt its comforting as I always felt a Zephyr was God
whispering "Everything will be ok". And wasn't Albert Einstein a
Scientist? Reading the above quote, I surmise he was also quite
a philosopher.
It is taking the Barn and not destroying it to create something
else. It is taking the knowledge and beauty of the barn and
applying its lesson, form, structure and artistry into the
skyscraper (or museum, cathedral, home or bridge).
These bridges create links. That web that brings our past to ]
our present and our present to our future. The invisible bond
that unites us with classmates post graduation and colleagues
from workplace to workplace after transfers, buyouts and
mergers and entrepreneurialism intervenes. That magnetism
that draws us. The energy of the Renaissance whose
changemakers studied the lessons of the Classic Roman and
Greek eras and applied them to their transforming world.
Connecting the past to the present and the present to the
future and the possibilities with the practicalities. As you
grow, the view gets both wider and deeper. Your mind
understands more as the connections become more vast:
like an endless highway stretching beyond your wildest
imagination.
Yesterday the road stretched out before us as we crisscrossed
our home town. Going nowhere and anywhere we meandered along
path from the Northeast part of Bakersfield to Oildale and back
to Northeast Bakersfield.
Driving down Manor Street towards
our Beloved Melodrama Musical Theatre I had a thought: I could
start here in Bakersfield and drive literally anywhere in both
North and South America.
I could start here, today, and take a trip all the way to Tierra
del Fuego in South America and then hop a ship to Antarctica.
If that was the true yearning of my heart, I could do exactly
that. In my beloved Chevy Astrovan, our possibilities were
limited only by the need to continually keep the engine filled
and maintained as we keep our end goal in sight. Modifying,
tweaking and adjusting along the way we could transverse
the entire Pan American highway from the frigid coldness
of Alaska to the warmth and jungles of Central and South
America to the familiar feeling climes of southern South
America to the frigid cold of the other side of the world.
I could start that journey in this moment from this place.
Right here. Right now. Just as you can start the journey
your heart is yearning to take. Right here, right now.
Looking to connections, links and bridges we notice the human
body. We see how all its pieces work together: the circulatory
system is an amazingly complex structure which is actually
comprised of three parts. Pulmonary circulation, coronary
circulation and systemic circulation manage to collaborate to
create and continue our lives.
All the systems work together in a circular, vibrantly beating
model that keeps you everything flowing.
As our system allows for circulation to flow, we live with a brilliant
energy.
When our system is hopelessly clogged we face certain death.
The connection here?
When we choose to sit in a space of joy and possibilities we
allow ourselves to circle freely. We are able to get from
Alaska to Tierra del Fuego learning along the way. We pick
ourselves up when we falter. We laugh at the interesting
characters and roadblocks along the way.
When we live in a space of fear and doubt, our system begins
to slowly get clogged. We shut down. We face certain death.
In my not-so-distant path, I was doing exactly that. It was a
bit over two years ago and what seems like an eternity ago
that I forgot what it felt like to flow. I had turned from
creativity, I had snuffed out the spark. I had disallowed the
beauty of life to shine within me or through me. I was dying
a slow, miserable, lonely death.
I saw systems and procedures as a necessary enemy. I saw
myself as a hapless victim of horrific circumstances.
I was not looking at the barn, I was seeing the hole where I
believed the barn had fallen.
Like our circulatory system, the procedures we follow bring flow
back into our lives. As I grew from slow death to possible
passion to vibrant passion to embracing the entire system
from nuts and bolts to complexities beyond my human
understanding and everything in between, I was able to see
(or in some cases accept that I could not see for the moment)
all the world was offering to me.
I was seeing the skyscraper (or museum, cathedral, home or
bridge). I was seeing not only the roads crisscrossing
Bakersfield, I was seeing Alaska, North America, Central
America, and South America and Tierra del Fuego.
At the heart of the experience was my soul. My essence. The
beat of my internal drum.
Where are you today? Are you facing certain death? Are you
reaching towards the flow? Are you living firmly in the flow?
Are you somewhere in between?
Decide that today is your new beginning. Declare it your
fresh start.
Know that from this point onward, you will grow even when
you stumble and fall. You will continue to go higher and wider,
flow through systems and procedures, gain strength and find
power in weakness.
It seems fitting to conclude our connections, our discovery of
circles, with a quote from the same hero of mine who opened
this article: Albert Einstein. Yes, he is a scientist. Yes, he is a
philosopher. Neither are mutually exclusive. They both are
spectacular alone and together.
Just as you are spectacular in your specialness. In your niche
and niches. In your own personal paradoxes.
Take his words and apply them to the systematic flow of your
life. Allow them to filter through and apply themselves as you
begin your new journey today. Directly in the words of my
Scientific Philosopher Hero: "The ideas that have lighted my
way and, time after time, have given me new courage to face
life cheerfully have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth."