Even if I could I would rather not see the future. If it’s not to my liking, then I’ll despair and give up all attempts to improve upon it; if appealing, it will tempt me to live in constant yearning and not invest my heart and hands in my own present.
That doesn’t stop me from persistently trying to scry any hints of what’s to come in whatever handy crystal ball I can conjure. We’re curious creatures, we humans, and impatient at that. I wish and want and hope and dream, along with all of my fellow mortals, thinking that if I just knew what lay around the next bend of the road, surely I would be content, or at least if not content then prepared. But few who have access to dates and deadlines, foresight and certainties actually prepare in full, and once the approaching events are known they so often become the sole focus of the journey, not a point along the way, in fact distracting us from all of the possibly meaningful points that do exist en route.
I would rather not give myself any excuses for being even less attentive than I already am, and to be honest, I think it would take a fair measure of the charm out of discovering my life with a degree of surprise as it happens. Do I hope that what comes will be pleasurable and kind and fulfilling? Naturally. But whatever it is, I will let it keep its secrets for now; there is a lot to be seen and felt and done long before I get there, wherever there is and whatever it holds.
Art-Colored Glasses 
To me what you describe is “hope”. What a wonderful feeling that is. It’s closely connected to childhood for me. We don’t really know what’s coming next, but it’s like an innocence about the future. I also grasp at hints but it’s better not knowing otherwise I would worry about achieving that particular scenario!
Perfectly said, Laura! I can only HOPE we never lose the ability to sense that innocence and eagerness. And that as much as possible of what lies ahead is delightfully worthy of the anticipation!
Lovely thought provoking post Kathryn. After the last few years I now live very much in the present. I plan a little ahead and thats as far as I go. If I had known what was round the corner for me a few years ago I think I would have given up on everything. As it is I deal with what is thrown at me on a daily basis. Never has the now been so important to me. 😊 xxx
And may every moment of your Now be a treasure, my sweet.
xoxo
I’m trying to live in the moment and enjoy what ever it brings 🙂
You are to be commended. And imitated! 😀
All this talk of DNA Analysis and predicting our lives through this scares the bejesus out of me.
Amen, brother! We get confused and messy enough in our lives without adding the perceived ability to control further things that we have no ability to control, let alone any business controlling. Yikes!
reminds one of “Invictus” !
I can’t claim anything like that poem’s power, but if I invoked it in your memory, that’s honor enough for me! 🙂 Glad you came by here.
You captured the restlessness of the human heart so beautifully. LOVE the photo – and the signature. =)
Thank you, dear lady! The photo is from a favorite ‘back way’ road near our home here, a route we sometimes take that has amazing power to allow us to decompress from everyday stresses rather quickly—something that letting go of worries about ‘tomorrow’ serves to do as well…maybe in this sense, the photo illustrates a road *away* from my destination! 😉 Glad you like my signature, too. 🙂 I’ve signed all of my art with my first and middle given names since I was quite young, so when I added my husband’s name to mine it didn’t change the signature I’d used all along. Convenient! I just made my signature into a graphic some years ago so it could act more like a trademark for me, and it finally became more useful when I started blogging and could import it into my illustrations as a watermark. One of many, many things I couldn’t have known about my future when I first started signing as Kathryn Ingrid! 😉
Glad to know your story better. Road and trademark and all. =)
Great post, Kathryn! Like the saying goes, ‘I make plans, God laughs!’. I really don’t want to know what is coming. Like knowing what your birthday present is before it is opened, knowing can lead to not enjoying the trip (however scary).
Lucky for me that the Supreme Being is eternal, or he/she would undoubtedly have died laughing at my antics by now. 😀
Hope you and Heather are having a spectacular time in BB! I’d assume the snowy part of the cold hadn’t reached you there, but I’m amazed to hear where it *has* wandered lately—the family in the Seattle area got several inches of the white stuff on Sunday, and of course we had a smaller dose here a few days earlier. Yet another thing that’s utterly unpredictable! Stay warm, my friends. 🙂
A beautiful reflection on how we probably know all we need to know, Kathryn … but wonder – backwards and forwards – is the bane of being human, and perhaps even more so of being creative! XO ♥
A tricky road indeed, isn’t it! 🙂
xoxo
Well said, Kathryn. Life is one story in which you can’t read the last chapter and skip around. You have to read it chapter by chapter. Happy reading.
Unless, I am told, you happen to be Benjamin Button. I like the usual mode best, myself, even if the occasional bump in the road makes me wonder! Happy reading to you, too.