Patterns - repetition

Window washer, Tokyo, Japan, March 2006, HP Photosmart R817, Exposure 1/200 sec @ f4.7, ISO 120, no flash © Steven Crisp [Click on the photo to enlarge]

Ever find yourself in a rut? Unwittingly doing the same things over and over? Perhaps mastering your area of expertise, but loathe to get out there and try something new?

We can easily fall into these patterns of repeated behavior. Develop a routine. Live within our comfort zone. But it has always been my experience that somewhere in the background is a distant, quiet call for something different. Not necessarily a critical voice, just one pulling us forward, reminding us that this is the only life we get, and that we might as well find/create our own path.

So when you see yourself (as you do just that -- by stepping back as a witness), becoming trapped by the confines of a repetitive activity, as time march on, or the opportunities slide by, ask yourself just why you are limiting yourself in that manner.

And ask if the comfort of that routine is equivalent to the potential opportunities, new vistas, and unexpected beauty that waits around the alley way or back road toward a new destination. Of course, you can never fully analyze the known against the unknown. And in that uncertainty awaits some of the inherent beauty as well.