Life is like riding on a train. The landscape rushes by as you watch out the window. It’s easy to miss what’s close by. But there is more time to study things in the distance. Life is like that, too. It’s hard to see what’s going on around you, and easier to spot the issues in other people’s lives.
Flutters – Good ideas start out as flutters, the gentle beat of butterfly wings. You have to be fairly close to spot a flutter. Blinks – When the fireflies come together in the forest, they blink randomly at first. They eventually end up blinking in sync. It’s quite a sight! But you have to step back a bit to take it all in. Sparkles – As your train speeds across the landscape you can spot the sparkle of the clear blue lake in the distance, the shiny glint of the sun through the pine forest, and the glitter of fields of grain waving in the breeze. Sparkles are the easy to spot from a distance.
We all have flutters, blinks, and sparkles in our lives. We encounter them each day, good ideas that have the potential to make a difference in people’s lives. But perhaps we’re too busy or the train is traveling too fast for us to recognize them. Or we’re just trying to survive in a chaotic society, and we’re focused on getting there…the train’s next stop. We forget to look out the window. We end up missing the good ideas all together.
Here’s the flutter that started Fairhaven. This is a blog post about my grandfather. He avoided the speeding train to chaos. I’m glad I was close by to see his flutter. Join us. Let’s get off the train and get blinking!
Ridin’ on a Train (opens in a new window)
Cheers, Gus
