John, lean, lanky, and in his early twenties flopped down in the chair beside me. Nothing was said as we looked out over the balcony and through the trees enjoying the scenery at his parent’s cottage. Though comfortable in the silence I was interested in hearing about his next adventure - college. He'd been living away from home, working for about a year now, and I know his folks were hoping that experience would help in maturing him. Like my own boys he was very much a 'gamer' and it was sometimes difficult to get him out and socializing.
"When does your journalism course start?" I asked after a while.
"Actually, it's a creative writing course and it starts in September," he responded, adding excitedly, "I'm really looking forward to it!"
"That's great. What’s your favourite genre?" I asked then quickly added, "Are you writing now?" Because if he's that excited about his course I figure he's already writing regularly. Wrong!
His face lit up as he talked about his love for science fiction and his minor like for horror. But he was way too busy job hunting to write anything just now.
"Besides," he said, "I don't have the discipline for it. I'll just wait for school to give me that."
Alarm bells were ringing through my head!!! 'Stop the presses!' I screamed internally! But I’ve learned with my own boys and through my Reiki practice that if I can stay away from judging and just ask simple questions the answers I get can be quite surprising. Outwardly I remain calm.
"Really? I wonder if the course teaches discipline?" I say out loud. Because we know it doesn't said my inside voice to me!
And so the discussion went about what the course is really about, what it means to take responsibility, and how we form habits and discipline ourselves. At the time I was thinking how typical it is for these young men to be so irresponsible and to lack any self-discipline. Don’t you agree?
Or, are you like so many other ‘mature’ adults making excuses for the way things are in your life, blaming others, and, or, waiting on some outside force to get to work? Hmmm…