February
12, 2001
I just finished a book by Nick Bantock titled, The
Forgetting Room. It is a
wonderful quick read that is set in a small town in Spain called Ronda.
My wife and I had the good fortune of visiting Ronda a few years ago, so
this made the story all the more enjoyable.
In the story, a man journeys to Spain to settle his
grandfather’s estate that includes his house and personal possessions.
His grandfather was an artist and he used to call the studio in his house
the “forgetting room”. Forgetting the troubles of the outside world he would enter
the world of his art.
Upon his arrival in Ronda, the grandson discovers
that when he enters the empty home and the studio in particular he is flooded
with memories. Rather than
forgetting, he remembers his grandfather’s legacy and reflects on his own
life.
At one point in the book as the grandson is piecing
together a puzzle of sorts his grandfather has left him to solve, he makes a few
statements I find very interesting. The
following is an excerpt from this marvelous book.
“An idea or an insight doesn’t come from a
single happening, it requires a meeting to alter a perspective.
Often it takes a while for the events to collide, but when they do it is
inevitable that a change will follow.”
What a wonderful passage! We often think that insights are like bolts of lightening.
It is as if instant knowledge will come to us and we will be
“enlightened”. And further, if
we do not have a single moment of awakening, we are destined not to receive the
blessing of an insight to life.
To the contrary, Bantock is letting us know that we
gather many ideas and thoughts that together form insights to the world we live
in. But these ideas alone are not
as powerful as when they come together in a “meeting”. Then he points out that when put together, we need to alter a
perspective.
What is really exciting is that many insights may
already be at hand. We need to be
aware and in touch with the messages that surround us to see how ideas and
thoughts come together, then look at them from many angles. In this way we can gain a new perspective, and as he says,
change will be inevitable.
Spend some time reflecting on events and ideas that
have been touching your life recently. Look
for similarities even if on the surface they seem unrelated.
Then look at them from many different perspectives trying to be as
nonjudgmental as possible. Is there
something that you may have been overlooking that might be yet another step
forward in your spiritual journey? Just
maybe this exercise may turn up an insight for you as it did for the grandson in
that small Spanish town of Ronda and bring you closer to your higher self.
Peace be with you,
Excerpt from The Forgetting Room, by Nick Bantock, Copyright 1997 by Sfumato Glyphics Inc., HarperColins Publishers, Inc.