There are days you feel excited and full of life, revved up and ready to go, where you wake up and immediately say, "good morning, god!" and then there are days where your get up and go has clearly gotten up and gone; when you wake up and immediately say instead, "good god, morning!"
I was thinking earlier today, lost in the abstract idea that - on the whole - we are so incredibly resilient, and yet we rarely give ourselves enough credit for being that. We easily beat ourselves up over our mistakes, even inviting others to the self-bashing party by pointing out the mistakes others may have missed. But at some point, we abandon the idea and resign ourselves to our circumstance. At the least, we co-exist with the pain; at best, we embrace the lesson of the circumstance and use that lesson to avoid painful situations in the future. We do go on.
So, faced with the thought of unending and unyielding pain, being overwhelmed, how do we continue to go on? How do we do it? By focusing on the journey and not the destination; by being present in our circumstance and neither clinging to what's behind us, nor avoiding what's in front of us or being fearful of where the destination ultimately is.
Think of it this way: Life is not supposed to be a sidewalk, a succession of squares of cement that are identical, spreading in front of us endlessly toward some unseen end point, though we often choose to walk that path. Our life path is actually designed to be more like a series of flagstone steps, each unique, each step leading us to the next one, in a pattern of our making. We must pay attention to where we place each foot on the path, moving forward one step at a time in order to continue our journey. Sometimes we may have to pause and contemplate where the next flagstone is. Or, if a stone is missing, we may even have to leap forward to the next slate.
So, if you find yourself overwhelmed with where you are tonight or what's coming up next, instead of choosing the "sidewalk" comprised of endless, formless, blocks, head for the path in front of you that is laid out in a series of winding curves amidst the beauty of your own backyard - the uniqueness, the symmetry, the simplicity, the beauty, of the flagstone steps of your life.
Intuitively Yours,
Nan O'Brien
For more information about me and my work, please visit www.NanOBrien.com
nan,
i wrote a comment on this story, but i do not see it and i really hope i am not repeating my words, but i want you to see them. your writing is something i can see in my heart and not just my mind. i have been walking on a succession of cement blocks for so long and blindfolded at the same time. afraid of each step i took even though i had taken them many times before. they were familiar to me because i never dared deviate from the path because of the darkness of the blindfold. so in a sense, i felt safe and sure if i just stayed on those cement blocks, i would just keep going forward. i knew how much i was missing on my journey of darkness and false safety, but choosing the smoothest path possible was the only thing i knew to do to keep going. i love you analogy of the flagstone path.Being mindful of where our next step should be placed.the path laid out in front of us, each unique, leading us to the next one. reading your words of the "missing flagstone" and possibly having to take a leap made my heart race a little faster. my blindfolded journey made that thought such a fearful idea..but then i remembered that the blindfold has come off..i can visualize the winding flagstone path and i can see it ahead of me. better even, is being able to see the beauty all around that path...that journey....my journey. so pushing away the old habits of fear and my reactions of racing heart, i almost look forward to that missing flagstone step, here and there, so i can make those leaps you write of. my journey seems less daunting walking on the flagstones instead of the simple, plain cement blocks.more exciting of a journey! thank you thank you for your writings....they touch a place within me that has been far too gone, for far too long. thank you for sharing them with the world and with lil ole me........
hugs to you nan
Cathy