I had just finished breakfast and my FIRST INCLINATION was to move to the screened-in porch to finish my coffee, the sports section of the newspaper and the comics. A person who’s retired has the option to do that sort of thing!
But I couldn’t help noticing the dry grass in the back yard. Then in the front.
Watering was an option – in addition to sitting on the porch finishing my coffee, the sports section and the comics. With those options, one HAD TO ASK: What’s more important? If not watering NOW, when? If not ME, who?
More specifically, If I had the CAPACITY to do it and chose NOT TO, what would that say about me? And what would the consequence of my inaction be? If I had not the WILL to do it, they might as well haul me off to the Senior Living Center for the duration! And, woe is me, if I’m over 50 years old and do not have enough INSIGHT to understand how things GOT that way and how they can be corrected – with some sense of URGENCY!
But note, also, the importance of INCLINATION. The importance of LEANING IN toward wherever one is purporting to go cannot be underestimated. [Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2013.] PRIORITIES have to be given due diligence, and trivialities sometimes [OFTEN!] have to be placed on hold – or deferred altogether … it’s called DELAYED GRATIFICATION.
CHOICE is important. And RISK is part of the equation. What did I RISK by choosing NOT to water, on one hand … or by choosing NOT to follow my FIRST INCLINATION, on the other?
More about INSIGHT. [INSIGHT deals with the WHY and WHEREFOR of matters. It provides the rationale for rational decision-making and it impels action in a particular direction.] Here’s INSIGHT:
Our current property is only two years into development from scratch. Many others in our development, like us, have found that the builders took no great pains to remove large rocks, but seemed, instead, to use them as “filler” for property “grading” and merely covered them by a layer of sod to provide an elegant “finished” look. What happens after-the-fact in such a circumstance is that the heat (UV and infrared rays) of a searing summer sun penetrates the sod, heats the underlying rock (which grass roots can’t penetrate), and essentially “fries” the grass above. The photo for this entry shows the outline of a drain line installed to remove water from monsoon seasons. The drain is covered by gravel with a thin overlay of sod. When it’s NOT monsoon season, the grass gets fried. INSIGHT also undergirds PROACTIVITY and compels anticipatory intervention.
SUMMATION:
If you have the CAPACITY, the WILL and the INSIGHT to make life happen – and if your INCLINATION is consonant/congruent with your ultimate GOALS, VALUES and PRINCIPLES, very little can stop you from becoming ALL THAT YOU CAN BE in fulfilling your TRUEST DESTINY. GO and DO and BE! Take a swig of coffee, but the sports section, the comics, social media and lots of other stuff can wait! Quartermaster
Quote of the Week
“Knowledge counts. Knowledge [providing INSIGHT] should lead. When you know better – you must do better. And when you know better and you do not do better – well – that’s its own special hell … having to live with the fact that I’m out of integrity with myself and my values.” Vitale Buford
