Diversions Ahead: Inside and Out

The English provide me with new words for familiar directives. One of my favorites was diversion. Diversion is used where we in the States might normally use detour. Is it because I am a little too used to detour that I resonate better with diversion? Is it because it sounds slightly more sophisticated? Or is it because diversion doesn’t sound so much like it’s taking me off track as offering a different way—perhaps even an opportunity?

In a way my whole summer has been a diversion. It’s been a diversion from the regular routine. It’s been a diversion from the little things I had grown accustom to—like a good shower, a kitchen, more than one set of clothes. But it has also been a diversion in my thinking process. I have actually had more time to think, to live my life a little more introspectively rather than wide out in the open. That kind of diversion I advocate for as a good practice, just as regular meditation is a good practice. But turning inward may mean you find yourself traveling a path you were not expecting. You can view it as disruption or you can embrace it as opportunity.

The obvious choice would be opportunity, but honestly, it’s a little disruptive as well. Opening up is risky. Most of us are known to be pretty good at keeping our true selves withdrawn, even from ourselves. But to do this…to look in rather than away…gives many of us the chance to explore our authentic self. A self that can handle diversions when we trust that we are not going off track in so much as we are simply diverting to the alternative path.