Conversations with Calliope- Dialogue with My Muse

(Sunset- Dunkirk, NY)

JOE: Good morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. How are you today?
JOE: Fine. Before you ask, no, I didn't get my column done yesterday.
CALLIOPE: Let me guess. Too wrapped up in your packing and cleaning?
JOE: Exactly.
CALLIOPE: What have you learned from your packing?
JOE: A little about what's important to me.
CALLIOPE: Such as?
JOE: How much I can do without. The more I take out the door to the trash or give away, the freer I feel.
CALLIOPE: Do you mean less encumbered?
JOE: I do. It makes me realize how much our trappings tie us down.
CALLIOPE: A good realization. What's on your agenda for today?
JOE: I plan to get my column written and then get back to packing. Tonight I will go to Rochester for my final outdoor concert of the season with Ruby Shoes.
CALLIOPE: Which is the band I presume?
JOE: Just so. I'm looking forward to it but not to the close of the summer. I need to think of it as a cycle rather than the end of anything. Talk with you tomorrow.

What Do We Expect of Ourselves?

In yesterday's post, I wrote about what others expect of us and how that tends to shape our actions. Probably at least as important are the expectations we have of ourselves. From what we have been told by our parents, what we have heard from others about ourselves and what we have learned from experience, we have ideas about what our capabilities are. We think we know what we can do and what we can't. We could be right or wrong. We might reach beyond our capabilities or be trapped by what we see as out limitations. Our expectations are only ideas we have about ourselves. We don't know our capabilities until we take the risk and stretch ourselves a little. Even then, we might have the capacity to learn skills we don't have at present. We sell ourselves short if we stop at the limits we think we have. Taking a chance is often risky but is the only way we can find out out true abilities.