Down the Rabbit Hole & Around the Lake

“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

 I woke up early this morning in house full of sleeping beauties, 6,250 ft. above sea level, with nothing but pine trees and snow outside my window. With my eyes barely open, I had two option; roll over and go back to sleep or I could take advantage of this quiet moment for some much appreciated me time.

Fifteen minutes later, cup of tea, iPad, and glasses in hand I journeyed outside to discover the optimal place to read and enjoy my favorite morning beverage. A few short steps and I was on the bank of Lake Tahoe with mountains full of trees lightly dusted with the over nights sprinkle of snow in the horizon. As I sat looking up at the stillness of the world around me I noticed that on my mug was a hedgehog. My mind quickly turned from reading my book to pondering the work of Lewis Carroll and a world full of noise and nonsense.

Here I was in this peaceful, majestic, green and white landscape, not a sound, complete stillness, but was my world truly quiet? Or were there sounds, voices in my head that keep it full of clutter and noise? Is my mind a ball like the hedgehog waiting to be batted through another set of obstacles?   Yes, I do have a tendency to use my quiet time to think about many things. But it is my nonsense  that inspire some of my finest work. It makes me want to write. Maybe the key to a quiet mind, is not less thinking, but using the space for a purpose?

Spring is the time for cleaning, starting fresh. Just like the clean white new blanket of snow, my thoughts need a good dusting to add some sparkle and freshness. We clean out our closets, pack up all the items we no longer need, use or serve us no purpose and drop them off at the local donation center. Maybe we need to do the same with all our past thoughts. Round up your worries, issues you can’t change, and all the excuses from yesterday, and just pack them up for removal. Then fill your world with nonsense. The good kind of nonsense, the nonsense that allows one to dream and believe in the impossible. Basically nonsense is the cholesterol of the brain. It is okay to high levels of the good stuff, but the bad kind can kill you.

Alice said it best, “If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense.” Embrace the nonsense and learn to tuck and roll with each swing of the mallet. Or better yet, pick up the flamingo and stop being the hedgehog. Nothing is impossible, I believed I would actually post this blog today. The good news is that breakfast comes every day, so dream away, for tomorrow the impossible will be waiting for you at dawn!