A Mule taught me a lesson I never forgot

Staying in Love With What’s Familiar, Makes Your Success Limited

My love of where I’m at hinders me in making a choice I should make

When we are young, we make choices without much thought. Now older, we realize the option we choose will not give us time to recover if it’s wrong.

We like the familiar, don’t we? One reason is that it’s so predictable. We know the ins and outs of our jobs and what works and doesn’t. It isn’t easy to pick up and move when we live a long time in one house.

Loving the familiar will limit the success we expect

It holds us in its grip. I’ve made three attempts to move into a Life Plan Community, LPC. On my final attempt, we were within five days of moving in when I pulled the plug, stopping the move. I wrote about it here.

At our age, in our eighties, its inevitable change will happen. Do I want to be the one making the change? Or do I leave it up to chance?

Our Lives lived in chapters

Here’s another thought on dealing with the familiar.

We live our lives in chapters. It is like reading a book with many chapters. When we’re done reading one chapter, we don’t throw the book away. No, we turn the page and enter a new chapter.

So, what holds us, me, back from opening a new chapter? I love the familiar too much to open the next chapter.

The Mule

Some years ago, on one of my walks, a Mule taught me the lesson of the pull of the familiar. I wrote about it; you can read it here.

The Amish farmer was hooking his six mules up to work the fields. But, one mule got loose.

The mule galloped out the lane, passing me. He stopped abruptly right at the gate leading to the field where he grazed. Even though the world awaited him at the end of the lane, the familiar stopped him.

Turning the page

I need to turn the page to go past the familiar. Now you know what is hindering me from moving forward. What about you?

Are you ready to leave the familiar and turn the page?

Are you prepared to open a new chapter of your life?

Tell me, what made you leave the familiar?

How were you able to go into a new chapter of living?

If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we are not really living. Growth demands a temporary surrender of security. It may mean a giving up of familiar but limiting patterns — Gail Sheely, an American author. (my emphasis).

I know if it's to be, it’s up to me. Richard.

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