Yearning Towards the Light

 

This morning I was informed by Facebook that this post contravened their standards on hate speech.

It appears that their AI screening of language objected to a word I used that some people use as a racial slur.  I apologize to anyone who was offended by the use of that word and I have changed the word to something else.

Of course if an actual human being had read the post they would have noticed that this post had nothing whatsoever to do with hate or a racial slur.  This is the single most powerful argument I can point to about AI taking over from actual human beings - they miss context.

After days of overcast dreary days, yesterday the setting sun found a crack in the cloud cover and the little mountain ash a few doors down the street basked in the glow.

The photo doesn't do it justice, truly.  You could feel the intensity of the sun as the leaves drank up the light.

And I thought about how so much of what makes life enriching is so often unseen.  Or unnoticed.  I just happened to be in the right place, at the right time, and noticed the scene from the corner of my eye.  

The amount of time the scene lasted was but a few minutes.

And that is how life is, so frequently.  A chance moment in time.  One that could be missed, or not noticed because we weren't looking at the right place at the right time.

This morning I get to talk to some people about weaving, more specifically about ergonomics/efficiency.  When I reviewed the Power Point last night, I realized how little actual 'do this' or 'do that' I was going to tell them.  Because it depends. 

Each person needs to pay attention to themselves, to their equipment, their processes.  Find the path that is the correct one for them.  But first they need to be paying attention.  So much of what I will be talking about is the mindset that looks, that attempts to see.  Only by paying attention to the little things can we make meaningful changes to improve our practice.  Our lives.

Change can happen - if we not only allow it, but encourage it.  The first step is to be aware.  Pay attention.  Then start asking questions.  Trying different things.  Be willing to change, even if it isn't - at first - successful.  We need to be willing to not succeed in our first attempts, but pay attention to why and what needs to change to come closer to our goals.

We need to yearn towards the light.