I was reading this morning about receptivity and I got me thinking of when I am most receptive to input.
I think I (along with everyone else I know) an least receptive after lunch.  I really am ready for a sleep then.  In fact when I was working for a boss I felt there was a time every day when I had a choice.  Sleep or push through.  Sleeping on the job is not a good look so I did not go down that track.  I would decide to go on and get a second wind generally.  So I would say immediately after lunch I seem to be my least receptive.
I reckon I am at my best fist thing in the morning.  I reckon my antenna is most attuned to learning new stuff then.  I do not know if it just that I have always been a morning person or not.  I do know though it is time I am most likely to retain even the more difficult concepts.  There is an exception to that though.  If I have not had enough sleep at night I am not at my most receptive until I get the sleep I need.
So generally in the mornings I am good.  After lunch I am at my worst.  Later in the afternoon I reckon I am pretty well at an average.  That is, mornings are high highs, after lunch is low low’s.  Late afternoon is in between.
I am only looking at the typical work day for me.  Others had to contend with night shift or afternoon shifts.  I reckon they are a different ball game.
I am not thinking about nights.  Fir me they were generally a time to pursue my own interests.  I used to keep myself engaged of an evening.  I had a number of interests that keep me involved- from learning stuff to sport.  These days evenings are often for veging.
I do like to keep involved though.  Many say older age is a good excuse to slow down.  Everyone is built differently but I am yet to see any who have nothing they are looking forward to achieve anything.
A car stops when it runs out of petrol so I am going to keep on saying “fill her up!”

I, along with a number of others, have access to a drop box which gives a indication as to what is to be talked about on the Sunday morning.  Habitually I go through these, study them, and send them out to others so they can do the same.
I am really grateful for that as I am not one to accept all I am told based solely on the one saying it (even when the track record has been impeccable).  I need to establish what I think is right for myself.
There was a sentence in that that hit me between the eyes.  It is always nice to have something said by another that confirms what I have been feeling (though unstated).
“Focus on growing not on removing every weed in our community.”  It was an agricultural story that was being shared to highlight a truth to me.  The story talks about letting weeds and (in this case) wheat grow together because there is a chance that in removing the weed the wheat is pulled out to.
Up until now (this is like 67 years) I have always seen the weeds as an external element.  Yet for the first time yesterday I saw the weeds as something growing in my life that needs to be dealt with in time.
I guess in a lot of ways it is like the glass containing dirty water.  It is impossible to separate the dirty water except by pouring in good water and the cup overflowing.  Eventually there is enough good water in the cup that the dirty water is removed.
I feel that is the way to deal with issues in my life.  It would be nice to say there is no dirty water or weeds in my life but that is not true.  So often shortcomings remain dormant until a situation arises that reveals my less then good attitude.  The weed is suddenly visible.  Dormant does not mean non-existent.
But I have determined such things are not for me to worry about.  I reckon that if I concentrate on growing the good stuff then the bad stiff will be starved.  My problems are not solved by concentrating on my problems but on the one who can solve my problems.
That has been a game changer for me.  Ok I am a hard hat area, but it is the building that I focus on and not the things that can go wrong.  They are solved as I build.

It is not everyday I refer to an email a second time for inspiration.  But I was re-reading the email from James Clear and there was a quote in there by a guy called Pablo Coelho which sort of grabbed me.  It was the sort of though I seem to have heard a million times but I reckon it does me good to hear it a million and oneth time.  Or however that should be put.
“You drown not by falling into a river, but by staying submerged in it."
To me that says heaps about the way things are and my response to it.  It seems to be a given that trouble does come.  No matter how careful I may be, things occur outside of my control which are not pleasant.  Events I would prefer did not happen.
For some it is a dna thing.  An illness that is perhaps heredity.  Or a friend or the person themselves having some accident that changes life in an instant.  Or like me recently getting a cold which I so did not expect.  Things I would prefer did not occur but did.
For me it is not just about what occurred, but my reaction to it.  My default position may be like a “woe is me” response.  That is natural.  Investigating the new landscape.  But I honestly believe that like with everything I have a choice.  The event can floor me to the point where I do not recover and tiptoe silently into oblivion, or I can find the best in it and make the most of it.  Happenstance replaced with purpose.
I guess it is a bit like what happened with the stroke I had, brought on by the surgeon cutting an artery.  I did not expect that.  It changed my life completely.  Definitely not a good thing in itself. But not the end of the world.  Oh it could have been for me but I would say it changed my life completely for the better.
I determined what mattered, and the drift I was in, was a decline into nothingness.  Even if it was forced on me, it was a chance to reassess my position and do something about it where I felt it was lacking.
I have in the past likened events in my life as to once being a six stringed guitar and am now perhaps a four.  But just this morning I thought maybe instead of being a six stinged guitar now I am a four stringed banjo.
The stroke is only the end of one story but the beginning of another, better one.  I may have fallen into the river, but thankfully I did not stay submerged.