Pay Attention to the Good Stuff

March 6, 2016

A brief report of a life lesson this week via a conversation with a long-time friend.

My friend was brokering a computer connection between me and another friend.  In the process of the technical adjustment process, I asked my friend Jim about his health.  I did so by raising a question about his health in a quasi-joking way.  I asked, tongue-in-cheek, how he was managing the restrictions on his daily ice-cream consumption.  In a similar tongue-in-cheek tone, Jim reported that his daily ice-cream treat continued to taste wonderful despite the fact that he now ate from a small cone (half-cup??) rather than a cereal bowl.  We both chuckled, then went on about the work of the day.

Later, I thought of the level of communication that we had in that brief interchange, and the way in which without words Jim had shared a profound truth that he is living out.

Wannabe wordsmith that I am, I want to translate it into words and share it with you.

Like others of us, Jim is grappling with the process of hallowing diminishment.  Jim's ice-cream truth (Hubbard's translation) is a basic principle of successful management of diminishment: focus on the marvelous cool sweet taste; do not permit yourself to lose the joy of taste by distraction with the volume of the container.

Hubbard translation and transliteration: Pay attention to the good stuff.

You can see that Broomtree is still today much like the old blog.  I am sending this not as a sample of what I hope Broomtree will become. I hope that it is, rather, a process of floating some bait to see if there are still any fish in the pond.

If I come, will you be here next Sunday?

Gay