Friday, August 7, 2009

Accepting life as it is

We must let go of the life we planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us. Joseph Campbell
Life is always waiting. Just around the corner. Just around the next bend. At the top of the mountain, at the bottom of the sea. Life is always waiting for us to catch up, to let go, to jump in.

What holds us back?

It was a question posed by my lovely friend AR last night. What keeps holding me back from accepting I am worthy? Worthy of love. Worthy of being the magnificent human being I am. Worthy of living the life of my dreams.

What holds me back?

Perhaps it is that I am waiting for life to arrive as planned. On schedule. On time. In a format compatible with my thinking. Perhaps, in my waiting for that moment to arrive when I am 'all fixed up', all better, all perfect, all I am meant to be, I am avoiding turning up for me -- exactly the way I am today. Loving myself as I am in this moment, without waiting for me, myself and I to catch up to who I want to be, where I want to be in some magic moment in the future when it all makes sense.

There is no sense to the nonsense of avoiding loving myself for all I'm worth -- except for the senselessness of holding myself back from experiencing this one wild and passionate life as if it's the only life I've got to live. It is.

Perhaps it all comes down to acceptance.

Acceptance that -- this truly is my one and only life and I am the architect of my destiny. I am the driver at the wheel. The helmsman charting my course.

Acceptance that who I am is okay -- in all my humanness, beauty and warts and all.

The quality of my life is not determined by how well I wait for life to happen. The quality of my life is determined by how well I live this moment, right now.

Happiness happens when I take charge of my thinking, my words, my actions -- and make everything I do, everything I think, say, feel a reflection of the wonder and mystery and magic of me.

When do I determine it's time? When I turn up for me and take charge.

I determine my life. Life does not determine me.

The question is: What's in it for you to let life determine your journey? What's in it for you to keep doing what you've always done to hold off on living this one wild and passionate life fearlessly in love with who you are for all you're worth?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Elgie,

you wrote: I determine my life. Life does not determine me.

Condider Viktor Frankl's take:

I get to choose how I react to what is happening to me.

Yes, life does not determine us, but life happens while we are here. What we react to, what we bite off and what we engage with .. is all choice, ours.

We don't get to control much though . . we often end up playing the hand we've been dealt.

Mark

i am storm. said...

thank you...lots to think about.

storm