Daydreaming

If you’ve been reading my blog, regularly, you know I like to travel. So, as usual, I am sitting in an airport, and am once again, inspired. As I am sitting at my gate, patiently waiting for my delayed plane to land and allow us to board, a family has now sat down beside me. The mother, I presume, straggled behind the others, limping, and using a cane in an attempt to steady herself. She was unsuccessful at being wholly steady, but she had made it to the gate, nonetheless, and with no help from her family members.

I was thinking that the family should have been more aware of her, instead of giving no thought to her struggling behind them while they walked 20 paces ahead... I was thinking that she was unfortunate to be limping. I wondered if she was in pain. I worried that she might fall, and I hoped that she wouldn’t. I moved my book, pointedly making room for her in a closer spot than her family chose, and looking at her with an inviting “please feel free to sit here,” expression.

As I looked up at her with some bit of compassion and sympathy for her plight, she sat beside me and smiled. “This looks like a good spot for daydreaming,” she said, smiling even more broadly, adjusting herself in her chair and resting her cane between the two of us. In that moment, she became my hero, and my example. She wasn’t thinking any of those limiting thoughts I had cast on her. She was focused on new ideas. No wonder her family paid no mind to the limitations I saw. She paid no mind to them, either.

 “Argue for a limitations, and sure enough, they’re yours.” – Richard Bach

“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you are right.” – Henry Ford

These are quotes that govern much of my thought. I try to remember and teach that we can be, have, and do absolutely anything we choose. I am completely aware that my thoughts of my own limitations restrict me, unnecessarily. I wonder, though, about what we think others can do. How much of our perception of others’ limitations influence their abilities, their courage, and their determination?

As a nurse, I am careful to guard my words and keep them positive and encouraging, but my thoughts are not always congruent with that. Perhaps I need to guard my thoughts and perceptions as well. It seems plausible that we may just have a moral, social obligation to see the potential in someone and not focus on the apparent infirmity. If we could all see what others can do, instead of feeling pity for what they cannot, (or seemingly cannot), would we subconsciously send an encouraging message? Would our expressions enable them? Would our posture and our offering of opportunities change for the better?

Of course, always looking for the best seems like ignoring the obvious, or minimizing the potential for difficulties, or living in a dream world instead of the real world. But, hey. I’ve heard this is a good spot for daydreaming.