We want our lives to go smoothly and work hard so that they do. This often creates expectations that they will and always should. When they don’t, we become frustrated and often feel lost. We forget that the ups and downs, bumbles and blunders, and gaffes and oversights are where the best lessons and stories reside. Rather than hurry over or around these bumps, we should appreciate and mine them for the treasures that they are. Our mistakes are not independent from one another. Understanding their meaning and connection reveals our purpose and provides direction, creating a unique and extraordinary trip.
When things are not going the way we want them to, we become frustrated and often feel powerless to change our current realities. We try distracting ourselves with other activities and keeping our minds occupied. But while that may make us feel better, it does little to improve our situations and often just makes things worse. We end up dwelling on the past and obsessing about the future—anything to escape. But we forget, we are not expected to correct what has happened and know what is coming. We just need to deal with the present openly and with compassion.
Our days are not independent from one another. We begin each day with the results and experience from all the preceding ones. As much as we’d like to forget or change some things that have happened, they can’t be undone. That doesn’t mean, however, that the outcome is permanent. Our world is dynamic, never the same moment to moment. This continual evolution impacts everything around us, including our ever-changing selves. While we can’t alter the past, we can reshape our present by the choices we make each day. We are the link between the past and future we desire.
Life presents us with a continual stream of choices. We travel down the path, coming to one fork in the road after the other. We consider the outcomes carefully, afraid whatever we choose will surely be wrong. Once we make our selection, we know the other realities presented to us fade and the choice we made becomes our truth. The pressure to make the right decision can become quite debilitating. But this uncertainty is a sign we are not ready to decide. When we are aligned with our future, there is no choice. We accept the determination has already been made and move forward.
Our minds are expansive, able to adapt to a broad range of experiences. When we feel we have reached our mind’s limit, somehow, some way we always find more open space. Unfortunately this never-ending searching can also work against us. Too often we become attached to things that have happened, are happening, or could happen and forget the limitless capacity of our minds. But we must remember that these occurrences are never what they seem to be. They are just clouds or waves distracting us from the blue sky that is always up there somewhere even if we can’t see it.
