Pet Obsessions

I leap from one obsession to another, like a hiker jumping on rocks in a stream. I started the year with Weightwatchers where I lost 13.5 lbs in 3 months and learnt pilates. Next came the poetry phase, followed by the Eckhart Tolle phase where I devoured 5 or 6 new age spirituality books and then came the hiking phase in which we went to Zion National Park and hiked the Angel's Landing trail. After that it was writing, then blogging. The house hunt and our forthcoming hiking trip to Yellowstone are the most recent ones. I just need something for my hungry mind to chew on; otherwise I fret and fume and eventually get depressed. This pattern came to light last night when I was miserable at having to suspend the house hunt for a week and Sid slyly suggested I research Yellowstone day-hikes instead as an interim obsession.

This spot of epiphany throws my life into perspective. Painfully drawn out, listless summer vacations, the unbearable tedium of repetetive school work, one dimensional people, dull jobs, boring projects that I can sleep walk my way through without requiring any active engagement on my part...all screaming out for release! Give me juice, give me meat! Otherwise, my insatiable intellect will cannibilistically gnaw on itself and give me ulcers. I count my blessings. Inspite of bungling and fumbling my way through, I have landed up in a life where I have the resources to indulge my pet obsessions. A Zen Master would prescribe reining in the wild horses. Comtemplate the rock in the stream, instead of leaping over it - calm and still in the frothing turbulence.