Mindset Mondays with DTK – Ep #160 — A Paradoxical Analogy.
Jim Rohn suggested that one is the average of the five people with whom one spends the most time (I wonder how that applies during lockdown). I prefer a much older version of that idea …
“The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.”
— William Blake
His analogy is seemingly straight-forward. For the bird, the nest is complex, practical art serving as home, one built of its own instinct-driven efforts. For the spider, the web is home, also built of its own efforts, in fact from its own body.
For us, friendship serves the same purpose. Friendship offers the solace of home. It’s something that we must first build for ourselves. And friendship, every bit as complex as the other two structures, is equally as natural.
And then there is the paradox … Blake’s words are also a warning that friendship, left unexamined or built unconsciously, can also be like a spider in his web: a place of treachery and danger. Be attentive to the people with whom you surround yourself as friendship always unleashes energy — it can either be the energy of renewal and recharging or it can be the energy of desperate struggle to escape a trap.
Like everything else in our lives, intention, attention, and conscious choice are the critical elements to building your home, your practical art, your friendships.
What do your choices say about you?
JOIN THE CONVERSATION!
Join the Facebook Group
