📦 TREE 348: Leave the box
Throwback Wednesday – TREE 55
One.
Don’t try to think outside the box, leave the box.
Go where the new thoughts are.
Cook something completely different or eat at a restaurant that serves a cuisine you’ve never tried.
Take a holiday somewhere you’ve never been.
Listen to a different genre of music for a week.
Read a novel by an author from another culture.
Take a course in something completely unrelated to your area of expertise.
Read/watch the best news and opinion from the media companies on the opposite side of the political spectrum to you.
Try a different kind of workout.
Respectfully visit a different religion’s gathering.
Instead of trying to project your mind to somewhere new, physically take it somewhere new.
One of my favourite memories is from summer 1997. I was all on my own in a tiny out-of-the-way port on the south Coast of China. I was sweating through my suit. I needed to buy a boat ticket to Hong Kong. I didn’t speak a word of Chinese. No one spoke around me spoke any English. None of the signs were in English. Obviously, it worked out. I’m writing this. On the boat to Hong Kong the only food available for purchase was eggs hardboiled in tea.
Today I’ll eating celeriac for the first time. (Update: the celeriac was really good but for some reason I’ve not eaten it again. Maybe that shows how powerful and comfortable the box can be.)
Whether you are halfway around the world or in your own kitchen, you can leave the box.
Two.
What is the meaning of meaning? What are words? aoidfOoidm n€ciwhon¿
Three.
Remember in 1987 when U2 invented music? This may be the ultimate leaving-box-song.
Grow slowly
Jeff
My dad used to tell me that U2 was the greatest rock band since The Rolling Stones. And then they went and put their album on everyone’s iTunes without telling us, and I cant stand them anymore. Haha!
Most new not-in-the-box things I try, happen to be in the kitchen. And normally when we’re visiting my mom. My husband and small human don’t like it when I experiment in the kitchen. Little do they know those “experiments” get worked into their meals eventually too. 😁
Jeff, your life pics are out of the box!
Two years ago I realized I had conformed to a lifestyle. My new acquaintances were using terms like “sticks and bricks”, “swivelization “, “living off grid”, to name a few. They had chosen a lifestyle of freedom they said. It posed questions about the things I was doing. I paid $1800 rent, could hear my neighbors habits, and had no excitement about my future. I had become bored. Others liked my lifestyle that I freely shared with many. But the freedom and adventure of living in an rv was exciting. After 6 months investigating what it entailed exactly, I chose to free myself of possessions, bought an rv and fiat 500 to tow behind. The tangible freedom gave me what my soul was needing, nourishing. 2 years later, it still funnels me with the life I need now. I’m so jazzed I left a way of living that was making me stodgy and irrelevant. I’m wondering what box I am in now? Seems there’s always a new horizon, yes?