Donna and Pippi

Morning Stories: on taking the first step

Good morning,

Is the pre-winter gone where you are? We have forecast of 15°C here for today and tomorrow and for now no snow predictions in our nearby future. I try not to worry about weather too much, because I can’t do anything about it anyway, but it influences my days sometimes so I like to know what’s to come.

I’ve started reading Donna Leon’s Wandering Through Life yesterday. I’ve never read any of her books, but this one came highly recommended and I’m really enjoying it till now (I’m on page 53). She says something in there that stopped me in my tracks:

[…] I am feckless and unthinking by nature and have never planned more than the first step in anything I’ve done. Take the first step – sign the contract, agree to the interview, accept the job rent the apartment – and then wait to see what could happen. Something has to happen, doesn’t it? You might not know where you’re going, but you have to end up somewhere, don’t you?

This is exactly what I’ve been missing from my life in the last I don’t know how many years. I was this person. I was taking the first step without thinking too much about it, but then something changed and I was taking the step and walking it back afterwards. And then I’ve stopped taking the step altogether and looked how others did all the things I wanted to do.

I want to be the unthinking person again. At least about some things in my life. I think it could do me a lot of good. Thinking too much is stifling, it makes me pull my foot back while my knee is already bend. I don’t want that. I want to be more like Pippi.