“Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see.
It’s getting hard to be someone but it all works out.
It doesn’t matter much to me.

Let me take you down, ’cause I’m going to Strawberry Fields.
Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about. Strawberry Fields forever.”

History tells us John Lennon was amused when people attempted to “over-interpret” his lyrics.  I found myself pondering them one weekday afternoon walking the strawberry fields with my youngest son.

Have you been strawberry picking midday during the workweek recently?

This type of activity would usually send me into a tailspin, as I would ponder tasks undone and responsibilities neglected.  I’m usually far too caught up in my own “stuff” to break routine.  On this day, however, my son made it clear I had no choice but to drop the self-absorption, if only for a moment.  I must confess that these frequent shifts in my daily routine have helped me see a whole new rhythm to things in general.  I highly recommend it!

Here are a few new insights I’ve learned along the strawberry fields.  I’d love to hear some of yours!

• As we strive to find balance between societal rules and our inner being, it’s very easy to lose the latter altogether. I was reminded of this when my seven year old tossed and turned one night.  I went to his bedside as he confessed to “struggling with my epilogue” for a book he was working on.  Really?  I was struggling with bed wetting at his age.  I did NOT have anxiety about writers block and epilogue’s.

• Be “courageous like a second grader”. I learned this the very same night when my son declared, “How do our teachers expect us to write historical fiction.  Don’t they get that we all know nothing about nothing?”  I had no idea kids his age were that aware of their predicament.  My son walks into school day after day with his head swimming in epilogues, standardized tests, school bells, and various other forms of nonsense.  And yet, everyday he faces his predicament of knowing “nothing about nothing” with a sense of curiosity, a smile on his face, and his head held high.

• Avoid the Battle Cry of Adulthood. Try something different!  You may stumble upon a truer path, something that really speaks to you.  I know what I usually say to that kind of statement. “I can’t just listen to that voice inside me.  It’s not practical.” Rumi would tell you, “…Chase a deer and end up everywhere!”

• Just Say NO! My three-year old son still finds himself connected to that greater whole everyone talks about.  All his peers have an infectious glow to them.  Lately, however, he’s had “problems with authority”.  His preschool teachers tell us he has had to spend time in “time-out” for telling his teachers NO.  As in NO I’m not doing that, and NO that doesn’t feel right to me.  That part of his being is still out there for everyone to see, and in all honesty…I love it.

Celebrate the “off-beat” and unpredictable moments.  They may be just what you need to come to greater knowing.