"If I had asked people what
they wanted, they would have said faster horses."
(Misattributed to Henry Ford, but
actually of unknown origin)
We focus so much on what we think
we need because of the circumstances we have experienced that we forget the
possibility of something so new that we have yet to invent it. When Henry Ford
began his work, horseback or horse drawn carriages were the primary way of
travel. He did not invent the car but he did invent a way for economical car
ownership.
Probably every major problem
facing our world today, including global warming, is soluble by looking beyond
the problem to a new vision of possibility. I don’t make light of or belittle
our challenges but I do believe that history shows that we looking backward can
see pivotal points in our progress when someone opened his or her eyes to
something greater and claimed a world-changing idea. Then they found a way to
make it happen.
Most of us in reviewing our own
lives can find times when we feared, hoped, planned, or schemed for a certain
result and discovered in the process that we had something far more effective
or wonderful available. Our regrets center around settling for the lesser when
the greater was ours for the asking but we were too timid to ask or act.
I look back to people, places,
jobs, and more that I missed or lost; and, discover within myself genuine
clarity that had I gained them or held them, I would be sadder now than I was
when I realized that I had to move on. All of the might have been's, could have
been’s, would have been’s if only, and the should have been’s as well, I see in
retrospect as training exercises and object lessons, revealing who I am now and
pointing to whom I can become.
I listened to my inner guide, at
least after the fact. The girl who said that I lacked imagination and insight
when gifting her, awakened within me a sense of how I relate to others, of how
I know them. I became quite adept and aware with others and some of my gifts or
at least their wrappings inspired warmth, amusement, and appreciation. The
interview I missed because I did not own a suit inspired me to be sure that I
dressed the part for every encounter until I finally learned to dress only for
my own tastes.
At times, we forget that an idea once
worked well and could again. When President Kennedy captured the American
people’s imagination with the space race, he sparked a growth in industry and
innovation that continues to pay dividends today. Instead of bullet trains, we
need a race to mine the asteroids or perhaps, a race to make our deserts bloom.
I mentioned greening the Sahara to someone the other day when he was lamenting
shortages of resources. When he said, “And then what?” I missed the opportunity
to say, “And then, we will do what is next.”
Now trusting in the Presence of
infinite Wisdom as my guide today, I look for possibilities by lifting my
attention to a higher plane than immediate need and let Wisdom reveal my
perfect course to prosperity in this moment and the next and forever one moment
at a time. And so it is.
John
Rev. John Lusk
“First
you ask definitely for direction, then it will enter your consciousness as a
definite thought; then in your turn you give it back the thought and it will
give you back the thing. It answers every question, solves every problem; it is
the solution to every difficulty.” Ernest Holmes
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