Stating the obvious.

Again.

(This post was originally published in my July 2022 newsletter. You can sign up HERE)

I was tickled… well, pink when I received a newsletter from our local nursery franchise. Apparently, July is the time to get ready for Spring, to rejuvenate your garden by making cuttings and buying new plants.

I knew that. It made sense. But I just haven’t ever really thought about it.
Sometimes the obvious stares us right in the face, and we’ll miss it purely because it is that obvious. Or, like my friend and I like to pronounce it: oviaas!
Since last month was the Winter Solstice, it would mean that we are steadily creeping back towards warmer weather (halle-fucking-lujah!) and naturally we’ll encounter Spring first.

Side note: years ago, my drug-dealer buddy one time asked me what season comes after this one (can’t remember the exact season we were in at that time). Please note that there are people who struggle with differentiating left from right, and others don’t know which colour follows which on the rainbow. And then there are people who don’t know which season follows which. Big eye opener for me!

Coming back to the subject: Spring. No! Rejuvenation. No, wait: staring at the obvious… fuck, I’ve lost my trail of thought. Give me a second while I re-read what I’ve typed thus far, and thank you for your patience.

Right, okay. Gottit. It was both and all of the previously aforementioned subjects and I was driving towards a point. That point being the obvious. Or let me use my punctuations: That point being, the obvious.

We are currently watching a fantasy drama series about mermaids that come on land and some want to kill the humans, while others want the humans to help them. And shit goes down and people die and others want to test the mermaids’ DNA and someone is hiding secrets. As a viewer, I can see the obvious course of action that will save the whole dilemma: go to the military, tell them that this one mermaid had gone rogue and they need to watch out for her.

But does the story run along those lines?

Noooooo, because that’s just too obvious. So we end up slinging verbal abuse at the characters and get way too involved in something that is not even real.

Sound familiar? Yeah, thought as much.

Life is the same. We can see what is obvious for everyone around us, but we can never see the truth of our own situation. Friends and family may offer opinions, but we can’t see it until we see it.

Here’s a thought: when we engage in news and media or whatever dramas we focus on outside of ourselves, we distract ourselves from our own shit. And for most people, it is a semi-conscious thing that they do. Because the shit going on inside ourselves is too terrible; we don’t want to deal, so we run away by selling our attention to the highest exterior bidder.

Those were all painful truths, but they were not that obvious to me until they got pointed out to me. Yes, it hurt like a mofo, but I appreciate those people who had the guts to open up to me. They are amongst my friends, believe it or not. We still communicate and every once in a while they still throw something in my face like a cold, wet rag. I love them for it. I love that they give it to me, honestly. That is how I am able to grow as a human being: through the openness and honesty of those who love me.