iv/ seventh pocket: mistakes

A final empty pocket

Can we ever be at the wrong place at the wrong time? When playing, don’t we always arrive just now and move to where next unfolds?

Mystery

The unclear possibility becomes quite useful when we feel trapped or limited in the process of living. Mystery allows us to attend to some alteration that makes something unexpected valuable. I never learned magic tricks, but I remember being told that distracting attention and focusing attention accomplished the trick.

Maybe the biggest mystery is that life unfolds without tricks.

Mistakes

Certain mistakes have immediate value. They lead to some discovery we would have missed. When we play, we pretty easily excuse mistakes and refocus.

Anticipating mistakes in order to prevent them may be inefficient.
We want more time to spend on interesting things the mistake introduces.

Sometimes I can catch the shadow of a mistake. Though more often than I wish were true, I end up trying to anticipate and avoid "mistakes." It's more of a doomed role. It is exhausting. That role shapes an internal message: Don't make a mistake.

In a manner of speaking we play this doomed part. Like so many games we play as adults, the rules have been misconstrued and the playfulness has been obscured.

Be drawn in by a mistake. That's a better rule.

If we turn this around, then any choice we make provides a chance to explore an expected outcome. In the present moment of that exploration, many things happen simultaneously. We reclaim our right to make mistakes. We learn about unexpected things.
We discover a healing feeling from within that affirms an age-old truth that we know what interests us. And we have more energy to explore playfully this moment.







Flexible like branches in breezes.