Waiting for the Snow to Arrive

It's been a better day today, but not without its frustrations. I woke up quite early and it was brighter out than I expected, so I decided to heed my own advice and take a walk on the moor before work, find a bench, and just enjoy some quiet, contemplative time. That plan was somewhat scuppered by the onset of rain soon after I left the house. Wet benches and drizzle are not greatly conducive to meditation!

There are quite a few patches of daffodils scattered around the lower slopes of the moor and they've always seemed a little incongrous to me, albeit very beautifully so. They fit well with the incongruity of the weather at the moment. The snow has arrived this evening. It's not really settling, but with the wind howling outside I don't think there has been a more unpleasant night to be out all winter. My legs were demanding a day off today anyway, so in that sense the timing has been perfect.

I'm really looking forward to reading "Quiet" - the book referred to on yesterday's blip - but tonight I quickly followed up on Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, him of the notoriously difficult name. His field is that of positive psychology and the concept of flow. We can equate flow with being in the zone, that state when we are so engaged with what we are doing that everything else falls away. I think we can all recognise this feeling. I suspect that a lot of us here experience this most intensely when we have a camera in our hand or when processing our photographs.

To achieve a flow state, a balance must be struck between the challenge of the task and the skill of the performer. If the task is too easy or too difficult, flow cannot occur. I can relate to this in so many ways. As we get more accomplished at a skill, or fitter at an activity, the challenges we take on have to be more difficult for us to stay in the flow. I think this is the key to a fulfilling life - choosing goals that match our abilities, goals which challenge us but do not overwhelm us. Just wanted to put that out there for my own future reference as much as anything else. I feel like today could be a kind of tipping point, in my life just as much as it's proved with the weather!

I need to offer more thanks to people for some lovely comments and hearts over the last few days, and offer a welcome to my journal to quite a few new subscribers. I need a bit of quiet time for myself right now. Hope to do a bit of catching up tomorrow. Stay warm!