I have often found that the best way to learn my way around a new area is to actually get lost in it. I just keep moving, paying attention to where I am, and eventually I will return to where I have been … or get to where I am going. This can be a bit tricky though when there are other factors to consider. I am on a schedule; I am tired or grumpy. The area I am in is just not all that special to behold. Then the temper builds or I start getting frustrated, which invariably makes me more lost. I may eventually get to where I wish to be, or at least recognizable ground, but now it is with no pleasure. Might even ruin things for 
me, putting an initial damper on whatever it was I was aiming to do. Yet get lost like this enough times and I will eventually get a very healthy grasp of the area. Where I have been; where I am going, and most importantly, where I am.
The really cool thing is that this technique also works when I am travelling through time.
I have been lost in time again. I have starting points. I many memories of where I have been. Yet I am not actually sure where I am going, and seem to have misplaced where I am now. This would be fine if I did not act as if I were on a schedule; if I were not tired and grumpy. If I did not find that the when I am in is not all that special to behold. My temper has flared up, and I am very frustrated.
Which has made me more lost in time and space.
Fortunately now I have gotten some sleep.
I mentioned recently that I am concerned about the hypocritical life I am living at the moment. This is the essence of that hypocrisy. Anyone who has meandered through the labyrinth of thought and creation that is this blog has encountered certain centers of my philosophy. Beliefs that I hold firmly. Beliefs that I have not been living lately. The two core ones:
- Everything we do is a choice.
- Live in the here and now.
I have not been making good choices. Or in many cases any at all. I am just drifting, without any attempt to control the direction of my drift. And worse yet, I have become so disenchanted with the here and now that I find myself in, that I have been doing my best effort to be some other place … or some other when. Yet neither is actually possible.
We can only be where and when we are.
If I stop remembering that simple fact, then I will never truly know my life. I will be forever lost because I am not paying attention and fully appreciating where and when I am now. I may end up where I am aiming for, or back at familiar ground, but it will be by accident, and I will not be able to consciously guide myself again when the need arises.
Nothing in life says that we have to LIKE the here and now. But we do have to LIVE it. That is the only way we have a chance of guiding ourselves to where we actually want to be.
I just need to keep remembering that.
