Making up a story

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Often in life, we make up stories in our head of wrongdoing done by others towards us based on what we think we know.

It is like reading a book with pages missing or text blocked out and then telling someone the story or worse the ending.

We allow preconceived ideas of others, marred by our judgements, to write stories that are based on simply that.

It’s a little like when we have a bad experience with a doctor or the phone company etc, we then assume we will always have a bad experience with doctors or the phone company.

Maybe a particular person made a bad choice of behaviour and then we seem to label them.

So we react to other people’s behaviour towards us, or most often overreact, based on nothing other than a partially complete picture or judgements.

Making up a story and often allowing ourselves to be a victim.

The simple fact is no one is out to get us anyway, they are busy with their own priorities, so being a victim is never worth the energy.

Instead of reacting we could simply ask questions to the other person and complete the story knowing the complete picture of another person’s behaviour. We may come to the same conclusion, but more often we would not, as we would react without blinkers.

Asking some questions first avoids overreaction and the need to make up stories that include us the victim.

Night pictures

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So on Saturday, here in Fuerteventura, as part of the Copass Camp that I’m on, there is a photography class, run by Stefano.

I knew that the class was running but I decided not to join, much as I have always wanted to learn more about photography. However, I did decide to pack my Canon 400D camera, which since I bought it about 6 years or so ago, has only ever taken pictures on the automatic setting.

I looked at all the dials, menus and other settings, and opted for the safety of the automatic picture.

The camera took decent pictures and like many of us, once smart phone cameras became good, I switched to taking selfies on my iPhone and the Canon stayed mainly in the draw.

So I was determined during this camp to take a few pictures. So on Saturday, I got the camera out and Eric started to show me what the various dials and settings did. Wow, we opened up a whole new world of photography, I found out there was an aperture and shutter speed, even what ‘ISO’ settings meant.

After dinner, Stefano, Ann, Eric and I went out to the seafront and took some night photos, something I would have never done had I not asked a few questions.

This blog though is not about photography, it is about realising that there are things that we want to do in life, we put them off because we feel we do not have the skills needed. The thing is, a lot of what we do not know in life, can be found out by just asking some questions.

Yet another great day, which would not have been possible without coworking.