It is interesting how the same material can hit you differently at different times in your life. I’ve had this book (Intuition Pumps) for probably around 5 years. When I first bought it I tried reading it, but it just felt too dense. I could not really make it through the chapters. And the pages were so thin that it made a relatively small book feel like a big task.

I put it on my bookshelf– not willing to give it up, but also not willing to read it.

Fast forward to this past semester. My music theory professor assigned a chapter of a book. The chapter was called, “On making mistakes.” It felt familiar. I absorbed the chapter, loving what the author wrote. I did more research, and discovered that this was the book I had bought years prior and hadn’t been able to finish.

Inspired, I picked up the book again and had a completely different experience then the first time I had tried to read it. The chapters felt more bite-size than overwhelming. And though it was still dense, it was more compelling than I had remembered.

Sometimes “no’s” are not alway “no” but simply, “not now.”