“I am impatient to break loose into the universe.”*

Frank Laubach, expressing this adventurous sentiment, wondered whether ‘this entire universe is a desperate attempt by love to incarnate itself.’*

When all is well, we must perceive what is not there to bring it into being.  We have to be divergent and imaginative in our thinking.

When our way is blocked – and often it will be because the brighter future will not come easily or cheaply – we must not be divergent but converge on the truth and reality of what is before us.

‘[Samurai] Musashi understood the observing eye sees simply what is there.  The perceiving eye sees more than what is there.’**

Marcus Aurelius practised observation by describing things in a non-ornamental way – ‘roasted meat is a dead animal, and vintage wine is old fermented grapes.’**

Some people seem to see few ways of moving forward whilst their imaginations work overtime when it comes to the obstacle.

Use divergent thinking to see the ways forward and convergent thinking to accurately know the obstacle, but don’t get these the other way around.

I thought to add these words from Isabel Guerrero, formerly of the World Bank, but finding herself on a journey to help the poor and celebrate their beauty: ‘Don’t get afraid of the pain.  Don’t get afraid of the unknown.  Step out of your comfort zone so you can continue growing.  And this is a lifelong thing.  It’s not just when you’re younger.  It continues.  That’s the beauty.’

(*From Frank Laubach’s Letters From by a Modern Mystic.)
(**From Ryan Holiday’s The Obstacle is the Way.)