The Oasis of Location

You ever notice how a specific place can become something different, something special? Sometimes, even an oasis from the rest of the world? Each place in our lives has meaning, something different about it. And I don't meant different places in the world, though that can work too. Even places only as different as your bed to your living room couch to your backyard. Each is associated with different things, each different from the other.

People often advocate for staying away from your bed for studying, because your mind subconsciously associates bed with sleeping. Or at least should. If you spend too much time studying on your bed, you may find that you can't sleep on your bed easily. Same if you sleep a lot on your bed, you may find that you can't study well there without becoming sleepy. Each place becomes associated with different things, separate. Each is a specific type of "oasis," so to speak, from the rest of the world around it. Need some sleep? Go to your bed "oasis." Food? Off to the kitchen "oasis." There is an oasis of some sort or another for ever activity.

However, this can sometimes even be a problem. What happens, for instance, when you've long ago associated a specific location with a certain activity, but as the years pass, your interest in said activity wanes? When you go back to that location, that activity is what dominated you there, and that is what your interest there is. It becomes hard to do anything else in that location, because all your mind turns to is what you used to do there. Had a favorite spot on the couch where you used to watch TV, but now want to use it to read? Well, that might explain why your mind is constantly thinking about whatever TV shows might be on while you're sitting there, no matter how engrossing the book. The force of habit and association is a very strong one.

Every location in our lives is an "oasis" of some sort, but each can be a pitfall, too. It all depends on what we make it. Associations occur, so we should be cautious in our lives about what things we associate with certain activities. Sometimes it happens intentionally, sometimes purely by accident, and sometimes we don't even realized it's happened until we go back. You will find, though, that those associations do occur. So choose them well and make them good!

Faded Promises

Have you ever made a promise, forgotten about it, and then years later are reminded of it? Or a promise that someone made to you?

I had that happen to me today. I was up in our attic, looking for a book, when I found a box of old letters. Really old, from the summer of 2007. I began sifting through them, and found some from an old friend of mine with whom I've fallen out of contact. Of all the letters I happened to pick up and read, it was the one in which there was a promise of working to uphold our friendship.

Now I can't deny that my friend didn't try. There was plenty of effort put into our friendship, and it lasted for a good long time. However, life made its inevitable play and we have moved our separate ways. It simply struck me as ironic, that promise. A promise made with hope and determination, but one that time has proved to be rather empty.

I don't blame my friend for our distancing. In fact, I still count my friend as a friend of mine. Time has just pushed us different directions.

We each make promises each and every day. It truly is interesting to see just how few we are actually able to keep as the years move on. We make our promises, well-intended and full of determination and desire, but as the years wear on, we find that we are either unable or no longer wish to keep that promise made some time before. Perhaps, with this new thought in my mind, I'll be a little slower to make promises that I may not be able to keep simply because of the passage of time.