Good impulse lighting it

An impulse.

For the most part, these days, I am not a very impulsive person. At least, not in the spontaneous way. I’m not so adventurous either.

There was a time in my life when I had a big heaping helping of both. But liquid courage was frequently involved. Now those alcohol-fueled persuasions are absent from my life. For my personality, I think the two went hand in hand.

Yet, I like the notion of free-spiritedness. Especially when it comes to perspective. The way in which we move through out days, and experience our worldview.

When we were little humans, running around in our footie pajamas, people began to teach us to rein in our impulses. When we pulled our shirts up over our heads and ran around clucking like chickens, someone took our arm, and corrected us. Especially when we did this in the front pew of church.

Yes, we learned to conform to acceptable social behavior. What was once spontaneous, robust, and uninhibited, become muted. We were guided to think twice before we would express our thoughts and feelings.

We were told to grow up. It meant we had to decide — all on our own — the balance between freely expressing ourselves and self-censorship. We learned the rules.

Impulse turned into responsibility for our actions.

Yet sometimes, I think it is good for us to do the “out of the blue.” You know, like doing little pirouettes through the parking lot at the grocery store. Or making squeaky mouse noises on a crowded elevator.

There are times when we make the incredible choice to follow our hearts and inner direction. That unexplained guidance. When we do this, we show others good things through our actions. They can see how our inner light shines. It glows. We emit. It becomes contagious. That good impulse.

Today, perhaps, we should do what our hearts tell us to do. And in each of those delightful choices, the world becomes a better place. One little impulse at a time.

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“…our impulses are too strong for our judgement sometimes”
― Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D’Urbervilles

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“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”
― Plato

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“No one lights a lamp in order to hide it behind the door: the purpose of light is to create more light, to open people’s eyes, to reveal the marvels around.”
― Paulo Coelho

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