Philosophy with Pooh

#1: “I always get to where I’m going by walking away from where I’ve been.” — Pooh

There are lots of paths in the Hundred Acre Woods where Pooh can follow untravelled trails. And even in our big societies, we have to face many untravelled trails. People are paralysed by fear of where to live, what to learn, who to see, and more… 😕

Yet sometimes, we don’t need to find the perfect path to go on. We just need to find the NEXT path to go on. And perhaps, the next path doesn’t lead where we wanted. But it’s OKAY… because there’s always a different path waiting nearby 🙏

And if you still can’t figure out where to go???

“Follow the simple honey bee” — Pooh.

#2: “Sometimes when I’m going somewhere and I wait, a somewhere comes to me.” — Pooh

Pooh finds many friends in Disney’s film. From a Piglet to an Eeyore to even a Madaleine. But often, the best outcomes in life are ones that you did not predict. You walk down an unknown trail and around the corner comes the best (and only) Piglet you’ve ever met. 😉

But what if you hadn’t waited at that corner? What if you had carried on searching for something… else? Where would Piglet have gone then??? 😭

The next time you can’t reach a goal for too long, shift your attention to another one… and wait. There might just be a wonderful Piglet waiting around the corner in the meantime.

#3: “This is life, Christopher. This weekend is your life. Your life is happening right now, in front of you”— Evelyn

Christopher and Evelyn are a couple that Disney met when they were making their film in the Hundred Acre Woods ✨ Unfortunately, Christopher was a bit too busy with work to pay attention to his wife, Evelyn, and his daughter.

Christopher thought that if he worked hard in the present, he could enjoy life more in the future. That’s why Evelyn had to remind him — you can’t live life in the future. You can ONLY ever live life in the present.

Every little ‘mundane’ moment in life is life. This one weekend. This one moment waving goodbye to your daughter. This one breath you’re taking right now. This is it.

So does it make sense to live those moments in life distracted about some future that (by definition) cannot exist?

#4: “Oh, dear. I appear to have reached the end… of my thoughts.” — Pooh

This is from the beginning of Pooh’s day in Disney’s film. Pooh just walks out of his house on this one day and the Hundred Acre Woods are foggy, with his friends nowhere in sight.

This has never happened to Pooh before. He is extremely lonely! And yet, he realises that his problem is not the end of the world. It is just the end of his thoughts. 🤔

It’s very difficult sometimes to get out of the bubble that we see the world through. In fact, it’s impossible. But we can acknowledge that something exists beyond our bubble — that even in the worst times in life, it is not the end of the world.

It’s just the end of our thoughts for now… and thoughts are transient and changing (like the weather). So it won’t even be the end of our thoughts for long! ⛅️

#5: “I suppose it’s right where it needs to be” — Pooh

This last quote comes from a time in Pooh’s day where he enters a magic tree and is teleported from the Hundred Acre Woods to London! 😵 Usually, the magic tree doesn’t lead to London… but this time, it led right to a bench where Christopher was sitting.

Without the magic tree’s ‘mistake’, Pooh wouldn’t have seen Christopher! I bet Pooh sure was happy with his malfuctioning magic tree 😁

In our human lives, not every mistake immediately brings a magical stroke of luck. But every mistake DOES lead to a particular set of future outcomes. Those outcomes wouldn’t have happened without the mistake. I mean that logically — it’s not good that you tripped, but you couldn’t have gotten up afterwards if you weren’t already down. 🤔

Perhaps, everything might not ‘happen for the best’? But there’s no doubt that everything happens how it needs to happen for the next moment to go on.