Hello and welcome to five minutes in nature with me Liz Scott.
Walking back in Exeter City Centre,
Back to my mum's house.
I'm right on the periphery of Exeter.
I can hear below me in the stadium that Exeter City Football Club are playing and by the sounds of it they've just scored a goal.
There was a massive cheer that I could hear rise up over the hill,
The hill that I've been walking up to get home and so hopefully Exeter have scored which will make the fans very happy and I'm on my way back to mum's.
It's a very cold day,
Damp day,
Gets in your bones sort of day,
The coldness and so I've been walking quite smartly up the hill to get back to my mum's house and I'm with her for a couple of nights and today the theme is related to the right starting point or the right starting place and one of the things I thought I'd share with you is a crochet project which has really had me consider this as the lesson.
So the topic today,
The right starting point,
What's that got to do with crochet?
Well I've been working on this piece of crochet for about three or four weeks now and the last couple of weeks I've been getting into a bit of a pickle.
The number of stitches I thought I should have don't tally up with the instructions.
I've tried to improvise and change things and do things differently and so far I've crocheted and pulled out half the project,
Crocheted again and pulled out half the project and it's just not working and so it's occurred to me that maybe what's happened is that I have started incorrectly and that looks actually like what's happened and I realize now today that I crocheted at the very beginning in the foundation line I crocheted the wrong number of stitches.
So ever since then I've had the wrong starting point and everything that I've tried to do to build on it and to follow the pattern and to follow the instructions just doesn't quite fit.
Some of it fits,
Some of it I'm trying to make fit but ultimately it doesn't fit and in order to try and create the pattern as I'm seeing it,
What it should be like,
I'm having to make adjustments and chain chain stitches and I pulled it out a couple of times and crochet it back again and it's just not working and then today it just occurred to me of I think I've started it incorrectly.
I think the problem is that I have crocheted the wrong number of stitches to begin with.
Now if I think about that and I look at that I realize if that is the case that would explain everything.
That would explain why the pattern doesn't match up halfway through.
That would explain why I'm having to bodge up things to make things fit.
It's like oh I haven't got the right starting point and with the right starting point and I've unraveled everything right back to the beginning.
I unraveled it halfway a couple of times but now I've unraveled it all the way back to the beginning and I'm hoping that with the right starting point the pattern is going to make sense.
That's my hope and you know it's a great lesson because in life the right starting point when it comes to how you see how the world operates,
The right starting point is so important.
For years and years I had the wrong starting point.
When I was on a self-development,
Personal development program of reading books and going on courses and trying to improve myself I did it for years and years and years and for me the starting point there seemed to be that if only I could think better thoughts.
If only I could discipline myself to eat healthily or if only I could discipline myself to exercise.
If only I could remember certain tools and techniques at the right time.
If only I could do all of these things then my life would be okay.
And what happened is that I'd follow these tools and techniques and ideas but ultimately I just found myself constantly scrabbling trying to be a better person.
And that all changed when I realized the right starting point.
What's the right starting point in life?
The right starting point is that I,
You,
All of us are the creative universal energy of life taking shape as individuals.
We're not separate beings.
We are all from the same source.
You,
Me and everyone.
So rather than trying to improve the identity or the ego of Liz which is what I always used to try to do now I know to look within,
Look back to that spiritual essence of who I truly am.
And the other thing to remember is that I'm human and I'll forget and I'll get lost in thoughts and thinking and that's okay.
With the right starting point understanding who I truly am and understanding that I'll always consistently get lost as a human being means that I live life with more ease.
Means I don't need to change my thinking or my thoughts or be more disciplined or try harder.
It means that I know always when I get lost is to look back within.
Look back to who I truly am and look back to the right starting point.
