February 04, 2026
There are some lessons you only learn by being uncomfortably close.
Not metaphorically close. Not emotionally adjacent. Physically, practically, undeniably close. Close enough that you don’t need to theorize anymore. Close enough that your body gets involved before your brain has time to object.
That’s what today’s Thought of the Day and Question of the Day are really about. Not intention. Not motivation. Just proximity.
We like to pretend outcomes are mysterious. They’re usually not. They’re often just the natural result of where we stand and how long we stay there.
I’ve written before about how certain environments quietly shape us, sometimes more than our beliefs do, like in Fire and Rain, and how habits form chains long before we feel their weight, which comes up again in Breaking Habits and Silence. Today is the same idea, just with singed eyebrows.
Thought of the Day
“If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire: if you want to be wet you must get into the water.” C.S. Lewis
This quote doesn’t nag. It doesn’t motivate. It just states the obvious and lets you sit with it.
If you want warmth, you don’t wave at the fire from across the room. You stand close enough to feel it. And if you don’t want to be wet, you probably shouldn’t be surprised when you jump into the water and end up soaked.
Lewis isn’t talking about bravery or discipline here. He’s talking about alignment. Outcomes follow proximity. Always have. Always will.
We often talk about what we want while quietly positioning ourselves somewhere else. We want calm but stand near chaos. We want rest but hover around exhaustion. We want growth but never quite step into the uncomfortable part of the pool.
The quote doesn’t judge that. It just points it out.
You don’t accidentally get warm. You don’t accidentally get wet. These things happen because of where you choose to stand, or where you forget to move.
Question of the Day
What is something you got too close to but wish you didn’t?
My first instinct was a dead opossum. The joke being that it wasn’t actually dead.
But then I remembered a better story. A truer one.
There was a moment years ago when I was standing in a Little League Snack Bar with a friend, trying to light a gas stove that wasn’t cooperating. I said something along the lines of, “You turn on the gas, I’ll light the match.” Which is a sentence that should probably come with a waiver.
What followed was a brief, loud reminder that gas travels faster than common sense. Nobody was seriously hurt, but I did end up in a barber chair later explaining to the stylist why parts of my hair looked like they had lost a fight.
It’s funny now. It wasn’t then. Who am I kidding, it was funny then too. Hair on fire, eyebrows singed.
And that’s kind of the point. Sometimes you don’t realize how close you are until the lesson introduces itself without asking permission.
That question isn’t about regret so much as awareness. About noticing patterns. About realizing that proximity isn’t neutral. It’s directional.
If you’re curious about how often these small, daily questions shape bigger reflections, you can explore the Question of the Day archive or the Thought of the Day archive and see how often the same themes show up wearing different clothes.
If you want these delivered quietly to your inbox each morning, you can join the daily email here. No pressure. Just a place to stand for a minute before the day heats up.
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