As a child, I spent much of my time in Cold Lands Woods, a small woodland area in the middle of the town I grew up in, Solihull. As well as the woods, there was a small field where I spent hours and hours playing football and cricket.
It was my second home in school holidays and the place I learnt to ride a bike… the grass acted as a soft cushion on the many occasions I fell off!
On days when we’d had enough of football and cricket, we’d explore the woods, either playing “Tracker” (a team version of hide and seek with a totally unique set of rules to us) or racing round the paths that intertwined around the woods on our bikes – I’d got much better by then!
And sometimes, when we were short on numbers, we’d just explore…
Going into parts of the woods we hadn’t been to before…
Looking into every nook and cranny…
Excited by the mystery of what we might find. Though, in reality, the expectations almost always outweighed what we found!
But still, there was mystery as we entered unknown places and we never tired of looking for that something special… even though we had no idea what it may be.
The mystery of doing something new…
The mystery of going somewhere new.
It never ceases to amaze me, how children love the element of surprise…
Yet as adults, we tend to play things safe…
We start to enjoy the safety of staying in the same job, often failing to explore other opportunities, because there’s too much risk involved in moving to another company that we don’t really know or fully understand.
With our own kids, we often tell them to “be careful” or “slow down” for fear that they may hurt themselves, forgetting the “dangers” we put ourselves in (and survived!) as kids.
As I’ve grown older (and hopefully wiser!) I’ve learned to let go of safety (not recklessly, of course!) and to explore different places…
Places of mystery!
I bite my tongue when I’m with kids and let them explore…
Let them build up speed (within reason!)
Let them explore their own mysterious places.
And all of this has come about because I decided to explore my thoughts. Now there’s a real mystery and one that’s probably never to be solved! Lol!
And as I’ve explored my thoughts…
And let them roam…
I’ve started to rekindle that sense of mystery that I had as a kid, so many years ago.
All very different to racing around on a bike, of course…
But no less exciting…
And certainly more revealing.
Each new thought takes me to a new place in my mind…
Or reveals the places I’ve been before…
But in new light.
Each thought is the start of a new journey…
Sometimes mysterious…
Sometimes not…
But always revealing…
And always insightful.
Keith Jones
Living a Life of Purpose
21 Days of Transformation: A Journey to Dig Deep into Your Inner Thoughts
If that sounds like a journey you’d like to take with me…
If you feel the need to dig deep and find out things about yourself you never knew existed…
If you need clarity and purpose to be at the forefront of your life…
Let’s take this journey together.