Epiphanies

One of my favourite quotes goes something like this: ‘You can’t solve your problems with the same mindset that created them’. It’s a pretty powerful quote when you think about it and you can substitute the word problem (you may not have a problem as such) with a word like situation….

With this in mind I want to tell you about my friend's epiphany (with her permission of course) because it is such a good story and makes one sit up and do that little mindshift.

She is changing her life. The house she shares has been sold and its time to move on, by herself (and 3 cats). She says she was fretting over her requirements for a new home – she had to have a house with a large garden for the cats because they were used to large garden after all, a very, very, secure neighbourhood, no traffic on her route to work, and of course worried about the expense of maintaining a large separate property etc etc…and needless to say, this is what she had to have and wasn’t finding; and was getting into a great state! But then she decided to move to Cape Town, flew down there with the check list of what the house must have (ditto above requirements)…. And couldn’t find what she was looking for in her price range but did find something else…a charming cottage that has a very, very small garden….not much space in the house and only 2 bedrooms (good grief). But nonetheless, she put in an offer which was accepted and then spent a sleepless week wondering which furniture to take because she had to have all her stuff, books, ornaments, and really couldn’t get rid of anything. So during all this sleeplessness she must have gone to sleep because she says she woke up in the middle of the night, sat bolt upright and had this epiphany. I wish I could repeat exactly what the words were that she said to me (she can’t remember either) but it went along the lines of:

‘You are changing your life, moving to a new place, new house….you are making a new life so why on earth do want to drag all the old stuff along with you….get rid of the old stuff….start afresh….’. I think this can also be termed ‘getting rid of the baggage!’ And in this case its not just the material stuff…she is selling her business and really starting afresh, she is going to do new things in a new place. She says she will do any sort of work (so long as it’s legal *grin*) for a bit of money…she doesn’t have to tie herself into her ‘professional label’!

Marvellous.