<\/a><\/p>\n

To think, I almost said\u00a0no.<\/strong><\/p>\n

My wife and daughter were off to a local park in order to take some photos of deer for my daughter’s art project.<\/p>\n

Was I coming?<\/p>\n

And I almost said no.<\/p>\n

And the thing is, there really was nothing else that I had to do.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A few months ago, at the start of the summer, I left my job in the City. I felt it was time move on, so\u00a0I\u00a0decided to take a step back \u2013 and some time out \u2013 and make some space \u2013 to consider\u00a0my next move.<\/p>\n

So I really didn’t need to be anywhere in particular or do anything in particular\u00a0for anyone other than myself.<\/p>\n

Yet, I almost said no:<\/p>\n

No to spending some time with my wife and daughter.<\/p>\n

No to being outside in the fresh air and autumn sunshine.<\/p>\n

No to seeing the deer and other wildlife.<\/p>\n

No to appreciating the turning colours of the trees.<\/p>\n

No to experiences much richer than if I’d stayed home alone.<\/p>\n

So\u00a0why? Why did I almost say no?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Habit, I think.<\/p>\n

Since I left work\u00a0my weekdays have fallen into something of a routine: cleaning, shopping, cooking, and looking for my next role. \u00a0And having taken\u00a0a\u00a0weekend break, I was all set to begin again.<\/p>\n

A trip to the park just wasn’t on the agenda.<\/p>\n

Few of us, I think, intentionally ignore such\u00a0unexpected opportunities. We’re just so focused on what we’re doing \u2013 and what we plan to do\u00a0\u2013 that we don’t even give a second thought to any alternatives that might arise.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0how much are we missing through this blinkered approach to life?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The are, of course, many times when we\u00a0are\u00a0constrained by obligations and responsibilities \u2013 but not, perhaps,\u00a0nearly so often as we might suppose.<\/p>\n

So let us be less bound by\u00a0our adult agenda, and instead have a childlike openness to these ‘unexpected interruptions’ and a childlike eagerness\u00a0follow the ‘diversions’ that they offer.<\/p>\n

Who knows what we might find?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To think, I almost said\u00a0no. My wife and daughter were off to a local park in order to take some photos of deer for my daughter’s art project. Was I coming? And I almost said no. And the thing is, there really was nothing else that I had to do. A few months ago, at… Continue reading I almost said no<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2k38J-gq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.asachildbook.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.asachildbook.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.asachildbook.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.asachildbook.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.asachildbook.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1018"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.asachildbook.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1025,"href":"http:\/\/www.asachildbook.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018\/revisions\/1025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.asachildbook.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.asachildbook.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.asachildbook.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}