Then one day, something happens

~ Live & Learn

“We work on feelings. On beliefs. On behaviors. Letting go of the old, acquiring the new. We work and work and work. We practice. We struggle through. We go from one extreme to the other, and sometimes back through the course again. We make a little progress, go backward, and then go forward again. It may all seem disconnected. It may not sound like a harmonious, beautiful piece of music—just isolated notes. Then one day, something happens. We become ready to play with both hands, to put the music together.”

~ Melody Beattie, from Achieving Harmony (October 1, 2017)

Notes:

  • Image via Mennyfox55.
  • Inspired by a share by Beth @ Alive on All Channels: “At 7 a.m. all my voices start talking inside my head, and when it reaches a certain pitch I jump out and trap them before they’re gone. Or I shower and then the voices talk. You solve problems not by thinking directly of them but allowing them to ferment in their own time. You feed yourself. Make sure you have all the information, whether it’s aesthetic, scientific, mathematical, I don’t care what it is. Then you walk away from it and let it ferment. You ignore it and pretend you don’t care. Next thing you know, the answer comes.” –Ray Bradbury, Learning is solitary pursuit for Bradbury by Luaine Lee

36 thoughts on “Then one day, something happens”

  1. Ah, the sheer beauty of this marvellous ‘mariage’ of pic & texts…. the truth emerges! Not yet (always) there with Bradbury’s findings, but the musical allusions speak to me – and (in my personal case) sometimes things fall in some sort of proper place when we either share them with someboy or, often in my case, when I write them down. A pattern of understanding emerges, things take a clear(er) direction – and of course, I love Snoopy with his faithful secretary 🙂

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    1. And it is awesome, how you set it aside, let it go, and the answer shows up. Miracle! All of it.

      Rilke too, said it best:

      Leave to your opinions their own quiet undisturbed development, which, like all progress, must come from deep within and cannot be pressed or hurried by anything. Everything is gestation and then bringing forth. To let each impression and each germ of a feeling come to completion wholly in itself, in the dark, in the inexpressible, the unconscious, beyond the reach of one’s own intelligence, and await with deep humility and patience the birth-hour of a new clarity: that alone is living the artist’s life: in understanding as in creating.

      ~ Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, May 17, 2011)

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      1. Why am i NOT surprised to hear you quoting RM Rilke? He is a planet to himself and set thousands of miles apart from most other planets and opinions. My dad (RIP)was a great admirer of poetry and he loved and implanted his love for the written word in us, his children (mostly me, but then I’m the oldest!). Wonderful exchange we can have here.

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  8. Such an important reminder this…. Whenever I try to force something, it backfires, but if I allow whatever it is I’m trying to do/learn/accomplish the necessary gestation time, seems like it slides into place when I least expect it and always feels just right.

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    1. Lori;
      This is nearly TOO deep for me – but of course you’re absolutely right. I call it, maybe wrongly, being (borderline) fatalist…. aren’t we though used to keep always busy occupied and ‘in control’ and lose therefore too often the ‘gestation’ time as you so rightly said – and with that a natural response to all questions. The music could fall in place, if only we let it!

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  9. This is nearly TOO deep for me – but of course you’re absolutely right. I call it, maybe wrongly, being (borderline) fatalist…. aren’t we though used to keep always busy occupied and ‘in control’ and lose therefore too often the ‘gestation’ time as you so rightly said – and with that a natural response to all questions. The music could fall in place, if only we let it!

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    2. Kiki, your comment brought to mind the famous Lao Tzu quote about water….
      “Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong.” This resonates with me, as it seems that when I try too hard to be strong/force the issue, I fail, but when I am softer, or perhaps I should say more flexible, I meet with greater success….

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      1. i hardened under the last loss. it took something human out of me. i used to be so deeply emotional i’d crumble on demand. but now the water has made its exit. of course i care about the ones around me. i’m just struggling to show it. a wall is getting in the way. i used to dream of being so strong nothing could shake me. now. i am. so strong. that nothing shakes me. and all i dream is to soften.

        ~ Rupi Kaur, from The Sun and Her Flowers

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  13. “Then one day, something happens. We become ready to play with both hands,…” I keep seeing the sweet image of a baby, when they discover their hands, looking, moving, tasting and with time, the crescendo happens, clap, surprise, clap again, giggles….such a Joy to witness 🙂

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