Why it’s good to be spontaneous …

"... quiet the trees stand
like cathedral pillars
leaves drunk on sunlight 
arch neon green above ..."

They say opposites attract and, in my experience, this is true.  I am a lark, a home-bird and an introvert.  I’m happily married to a night owl, an adventurer and an (albeit mild) extrovert.  He has introvert tendencies too, but you get my point I’m sure.  

I’m a serial planner, mapping out my days.  I live my life by lists.  It largely works for me, although I acknowledge its limitations.  To live like this can be too regimented and close doors that would have opened to you if you’d only given them the slightest push.  

Luckily for me, my husband will help me push through an opening I would have otherwise ignored.  This week’s poem is about such a time, when I would have stayed home to complete something on my to-do list. Looking back now, I can’t remember what it was I was so keen to do, which speaks volumes.  Whatever chore it was, it wasn’t important was it?  

To instead venture out on a glorious summer afternoon, to pick blackberries, proved to be a rewarding experience on so many levels.  I wonder now, if it was the spontaneity that made the afternoon so special.  It does us all good, I think, to be impulsive at times.  To do something we wouldn’t normally do.  To leave our comfort zone and venture into the unknown and uncertain.  I appreciated the outdoors so much more that day because I came to it fresh.  It was an unexpected pleasure to be out in nature when I had planned to stay home.

To do something spontaneous can awaken your senses and bring fresh insight.  Just when you thought you knew yourself, you might suddenly discover a new skill or passion.  I have a friend who joined me on a walk last summer, with a group intent on swimming as well as walking.  She told me from the outset that she hadn’t brought a swimsuit because she had no intention of going for a swim.  Fair enough.  But when she later observed us all getting ready to swim, she was tempted into the water, borrowing a spare swimsuit from someone who’d pack two.  She loved it, and has been a staunch cold water swimmer ever since.  She took the plunge, in more ways that one!

What I remember in particular about that afternoon blackberry picking was how it took me back to childhood memories, whilst also filling me with gratitude for the present.  There I was, stood shoulder to shoulder, with my happy-go-lucky husband, both of us fully engaged in the task of fruit picking.  It felt such a privilege to be alive in that moment, part of a glorious landscape, and part of each other’s lives in a way we often take for granted.  It was, for me, a simple pleasure of profound significance, because it reminded me of all I have in my life. I came away with more than the blackberries in my Tupperware box. 

You don’t have to do much to welcome in fresh insights.  I wonder how many of you always sit in the same seat at the dining table at home, or opt every day for the same desk in a so-called hot-desk office?  Perhaps you read a certain genre of fiction, shop for clothes from the same few stores or frequent a particular coffee shop chain.  Why not try something different?  Who knows, it may completely change your perspective?  You may discover something about yourself that you had either forgotten or never knew.  Have a go!