Living in the Past... or the Present?

I am in the process of helping with a 65th anniversary of my elementary school.  Part of this celebration will be an alumni reunion for graduates of the school.  When explaining how I keep busy, several friends have asked in several different ways:

• Why are you interested in the past?
• What do you have to talk about?
• Isn't this strange to relive grade school years?

I do admit it is unusual, but I don't find it strange... and there is plenty to talk about... that is not in the past!

What gets your attention?
(Photo:  Parochial School "clicker")

One amusing example: everyone from a certain age group in my school wants to know what happened to the "clickers"!  Now, on the surface, this could be seen as sharing old memories from the past.  The clicker was an instrument the religious sisters would use to get our attention.  When dealing with 35-40 energetic students (with no classroom aides), the Sisters would "click" this wood-and-rubber-band device and everyone would stop and look... and, without raising their voices, our teachers would calmly explain the lesson of that day.  (I do know from some classmates that the "clicker" sometimes inhabited their nightmares!)

What I find interesting about this memory is how I learned to pay attention... and how, to this day, I stop when a certain sound happens... a click!

What gets your attention?
(Photo: variegated rose - Larry Gardepie)

It's that connection of past to present that intrigues me: the ability to stop and pay attention; the awareness that past values still influence us today; that curiosity and wonder started when I tried to figure out how the clicker worked... and why energetic, young children would stop so suddenly.  (My elementary school experiences were not with wooden rulers or erasers thrown at you... horror stories I have heard from others... but a "clicker.")

For me, why do I stop when I see a beautiful flower or a sunset?  Once I slow down and pay attention, the memory lingers and becomes part of me: connections of past and present!

What gets your attention?
(Photo: Champagne Waterfall - Larry Gardepie)

Why am I interested in the past?  That question is almost like asking if the glass is half empty or half full.  For me, it's not about the contents in the glass.  Rather, it starts with gratitude that I have a glass... and then, the hope that the glass will be filled up again!

The past informs who I am in the present.  It's about understanding connections... and reconnecting.  It's about understanding what is happening in this crazy, chaotic world right now by looking back at who I was and what I learned to value.  It's about how I learned to pay attention, and what gets my attention now.

May we discover anew this week:  who we were; who we are; and who we are becoming.  Let's reconnect!
 

Larry Gardepie

Dialogue San Diego Consulting

(click on link for website)

Clouds and Water: This Too Shall Pass

Have you  ever noticed how beautiful and varied clouds are: bright and fluffy; wispy and misty; dark and menacing?  Clouds and our atmosphere seem to share or reflect our moods!

As children, we would look for shapes of animals or people that we recognized.  Time passed... and we paid less attention: the shapes changed; our experiences diversified; and we focused on other interests.

What do you see in today's clouds?
(Photo:  Sunset at Sea - Larry Gardepie)

Now, years later, we look at clouds and weather much differently:  harbingers of a storm on the horizon; forecasts of what tomorrow will bring; tools to plan trips and outings.  Rather than seeing what the clouds are revealing to us in the moment, we are attempting to adjust our schedules or events around good or bad weather patterns.  We have placed values or made judgements and decisions on how we read the situation.

Moving from clouds to water, I wonder about the nurturing cycle of droplets that amass in clouds and rivers... that passage of time when thoughts are condensed and held suspended or rained down and gathered in movement and change.

Do you hold onto the past or worry about the future?
(Photo:  Gullfoss Waterfall, Iceland - Larry Gardepie)

I have learned that the passing of time is conveyed by both.  "Get your head out of the clouds" or "Much water has passed under that bridge," my friends would tell me, as I would reflect on, relive or try to understand something that happened in the past.

As I grow older and return to cloud-watching, I notice a calmness as I slip back into the present:

• The beauty of our world;
• The mystery of other people; and,
  
• The awe of life and the diversity of ideas and ways of being

 

When did you last look at the world or
a person in wonder and awe?
(Photo:  Sunrise at Sea - Larry Gardepie)

Maybe we can take a portion of each day and recapture the wonder of childhood... by staying in the present... seeking wisps of Ideas Shared... and pausing for a movement into Presence Changed.  Rather than live in rivers of energy that move us through anxiety rapids or emotions flooded and out of control, maybe we can see life for what it is... beautiful creations of imagination, wonder, and change.

Larry Gardepie

Dialogue San Diego Consulting

(click on link for website)

 

Building Perspectives

Downtown San Diego is going through another transformation: a section of North Harbor Drive has become an eight-block construction zone.  Seven major buildings are in various stages of development: the WWII-era Naval Supply Depot was demolished, giving way to a sleek 17-story NAVSUP Fleet Logistics Center San Diego, a research and development district (RaDD), and a bayside park.  Over the next decade Seaport Village will be replaced by shops, hotels, a hostel, an aquarium, and an observation tower.

I have mixed feelings about this new growth: excitement and wonder watching earth being moved and foundations laid; sorrow and loss watching the past being torn down.

What foundations are you laying for the future?
(Photo: RaDD, San Diego)

As I sit with these competing emotions, I have been reflecting on life in general:

• How often do I hold onto past constructs and beliefs?
• What causes me to eventually accept new ideas and insights?
• Is there a way to honor both old and new as life changes?

Life provides many experiences where foundations are shaken or strengthened.  How do I adapt and stay relevant in our emerging world?

When do you work together for the common good?
(Photo:  RaDD, San Diego)

Standing in a safe viewing zone surrounded by various stages of development, I observe dirt being moved, surveyors marking the site, foundations being laid, and workers coordinating their activities around common tasks.  Human ingenuity and cooperation envision skyscrapers rising from these holes.

 

Years of planning, discussion, lawsuits and decisions brought about this day where people can work together to move from past to future.

Can you see new horizons rising?
(Photo: RaDD, San Diego)

Aren't relationships and dialogue like that:

• Moving from the past to the present, laying foundations for the future?
• Listening, agreeing, disagreeing, and arriving at common understandings?
  
•  Eventually working together to rebuild ways to rise above the holes in our individual characters?

As we move through these final days of 2021, I wonder what must be removed to create space for 2022?  Where can we imagine ways to work together?  How might we hold lightly the past and present as we adapt to a common future?

May we seek perspectives and horizons to help us rise above our pasts!

 

Larry Gardepie

Dialogue San Diego Consulting

(click on link for website)