On Old Habits

         

Old habits are like old friends. We count on them; we trust them to be on hand when we need them, and they’re comfortable. We don’t have to think about them because they’re always there. They accept us just as we are because we ask nothing special of them. Couldn’t be better, right? Who needs to have to think actively about getting dressed every morning?

A little unbalanced...

But then, what happens when we begin to think about doing something differently? What happens if we decide to put on our pants one morning using the opposite leg first? Feels uncomfortable, doesn’t it, and maybe a little unbalanced?

 Not looking for daily surprises...

I think we all know that if we keep doing things the way we have always done them, pretty soon we won’t have our comfortable, old habits. They will have us. A new dawn is just that, a new way the sun rises in the morning sky, never exactly like the day before. And we are heir to such newness. The only reason we do not realize the day holds new material for us is because we see only what old habits show us. We are not looking for daily surprises.

Weren't ready for that...

Our bodies age with the passage of time, but we get old when we become incapable of receiving new ideas. The 17th Century Europeans put Galileo under house arrest because he revealed that the solar system was sun centered, not earth centered as they had thought for eons. Apparently people just weren’t ready for that. Now if we want to continue to dress the way we’ve always dressed, no big deal, but let’s not put our Galileos under house arrest when something new comes along to rock us!

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