Can you believe that we are nearly halfway through 2008? Can you believe that you are reading more of my inane thoughts? (Maybe I should say still reading more of my inane thoughts.)
Anyway, ploughing through my bulging postbag every week, I started to notice some common themes. Apart from the 'Why don't you show your face?'', "Why are you sitting by a laptop with a black screen?'', "Why are you such an idiot?'' staples, there is another common thread that is becoming ever-present. Many of my lovely correspondents start their letters with a justification as to why they have taken so much time to actually write in.
Take Arfa for example: "Now, what made me never write to you, was perhaps, er, procrastination or, uhh laziness.''This very eloquently expresses the thoughts of many.
It's actually very sweet that we seem to have cultivated a bizarre relationship where many feel the need to apologise for being so distant, I am genuinely humbled and constantly surprised with the volume of feedback I get, so apologies are really not necessary.
This simple sentiment expressed by so many as a result of so little got me to thinking about time... more specifically, how we judge when the time is right.
I can totally empathise with the feeling of never quite feeling ready to address a particular task or challenge until a totally unspecified moment in time seems to tell us that the moment is now.
Many things sit before our eyes, recorded on some kind of surreal mental Post-It note, subliminally reminding us of an intention that we really want to act upon. In the case of my postbag, it's usually something that I have expressed that has either inspired or irritated a reader sufficiently enough to stimulate them to finally put finger to keyboard or even real pen to paper.
In the real world, it can be external pressures or deadlines or red final warnings that prompt us to get ourselves in gear and do something. My real job is in the creative realm, so I have various projects that I have to generate ideas and solutions for.
And there are many days that, try as I might, to be innovative and envelope-pushing-ly imaginative, it just isn't happening! No amount of pencil-chewing, arm-waving and mind-mapping helps to produce anything that I convince myself is worthy of expressing out loud ... It's as soul-destroying as trying to push hummus uphill with your nose!
I think the real dilemma comes when the 'objective' is a matter of a much more personal nature. I mean, the future really starts when you take that first step towards it – so it's very important to make that first move.
But once again I am an advocate in preaching that knowing that you want to change the status quo is only half of the equation. Feeling totally ready to launch yourself at it is the more vital component.
I am often asked for advice over matters of relationships or work decisions and this question of "When is the right time" often crops up. The best response I can give is to suggest putting the Rights in perspective of the wrongs that might be happening.
If the wrongs start to generate so much angst and stress then that's as good a sign as any that the time might be right.
With love of course, you can't just apply such blind logic. You can rationalise events and incidents until the cows come home, but if your heart still has that fire inside it, you just have to see it through until it burns itself out to charcoal or becomes the inferno that you dream of. That paradoxical old song lyric – If loving you is wrong I don't want to be right – sums it all up perfectly.
Until next time, ambidextrously yours.
