SATISFACTION

Are you ever completely satisfied?
Or like me is there a nagging doubt that there was something else you could have done to reach completion. I look at some of my artwork and wonder if there is just one more brush stroke that will bring a finality of perfection or whether if I do any more to the piece it will be spoilt.

It’s the same with a poem and often after posting or some months lying dormant in the poetry file I’ll go back and rearrange a stanza or change a word here or there that brings me one step nearer to that feeling of good job done and dusted.

But who knows in a year’s time I could come back to the same piece and as I have changed in the meantime, my view has changed and I see things from a different angle, or the subject itself has changed and I see that the poem does not ring true anymore, my quandary is the question: What to do?

Is it any wonder therefore that nothing is ever done, complete or finished? And since there is no right or wrong you have to ask yourself the question, ‘what am I afraid of?’ could it be someone else’s judgement? In fact no one is qualified to judge you or your work and we are only too prone to judge ourselves because we do not realise that nothing is ever done, and there are only different ways of doing things.

I will often sit up in bed in the twilight zone, before snuggling down to sleep, with pad and pen as the words come tumbling out onto the page. I take the pad to the computer the following morning, type the headline and continue typing. I then realise that I have not referred to my tumblings of the night before and the story is similar but not quite the same – just a different way of putting it down on paper, or in this case the screen, ready to post to you! You see just a different way.

Am I satisfied? Probably not and the focus of the morning has diverted slightly and on referring back to the twilight thoughts I realise that there may be one or two tweaks that will enhance a possible post. Now this is a genuine case of ‘where did that come from?’ as often the zone provides inspirations that escape me after the day starts and so no! I become more than satisfied!

Let’s take this another step and imagine a step or two on a walking holiday as you follow one of a number of possible mountain paths. This is an adventure since you could have chosen any of the paths and each one would have given you a different view and made you more or less tired according to its difficulty. Are you satisfied?

Remembering that wherever you are you are meant to be in that moment, you could always try a different route another day, but let’s say that had you looked at every detail of your trek, noticed every twist and turn of the track and noted every stone, flower and insect, every cloud and changing view on your way, you could have been well satisfied.

We see but rarely do we perceive and understand all that comes into view, similarly may we not only hear but please listen to the wind, the song of the bird, the crack and crunch of every step you make and are you conscious of every breath you take?

It is said that we are never satisfied. What did Mick sing? ‘I can’t get no satisfaction’ Maybe he was right and there is more to the words of the song than our adolescent minds thought at that first performance! Are we in fact all looking for a satisfaction that does not exist or will we all finally reach the level of consciousness where satisfaction matters not and only happiness resides. Our heart goes out to Mick Jagger whose girlfriend die recently.

Perhaps if we were all to realise that life is an adventure where the only daily destination is joy in all that we see and think and do. Just think, if we could all think like that what a change there would be in the group consciousness of the nations of the world.

Just think with no dissatisfaction even Vladimir Putin might be content with his Russia and the people of the Crimea might be content too to be part of Ukraine with trade links to both Russia and also the rest of Europe. No chance eh?

In a world without fear and a world without lies most of us would be on the pathway to peace and I guess satisfaction would follow fast on the heels of contentment.

In a world where one man’s truth is another man’s falsehood, we still have a long way to go before we can say that every heart is aglow with peace, but don’t lose heart we need to keep at it and encourage all we can to reach for that seemingly impossible dream which I believe is not only possible but within everyone’s worldly adventure! With Love and Peace, David

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