Do you ever stop and think about how insane this is? You have “your life”, and some crazy idea you get to order it, you get to have control over how it’s going. You live somewhere (if you’re fortunate), and you may have a yard you think of as “your yard”, and in it you may have “your trees” (they’re not your trees). And your view. Your car, and your routine. Your spot in the room when you go to yoga. Your friends, your dreams, your job. The clothes you pick for yourself. Your identity, you know? Your list of things to do. Your schedule for today. As if it’s up to you. As if the entire thing, your entire life, every plan you’ve got couldn’t be turned on its head in the blink of an eye.
We think of life this way, though. It began on our birthday, many years ago, and we have our story about our lives as we look back on it. But life was happening long before we arrived, and it will continue on without us. It’s not our story, we’re just a strand in a gorgeous, unfolding mystery. The more we open to the other strands, the less we feel inclined to cling and grip and force things to be the way we want them to be.
Do the people in your life know how much you love them? Are you making that clear with your actions and the words you choose every day? If something happened to you today (and I certainly hope nothing but beautiful things happen for you today), what would be left undone? Unsaid? Unexplored? Life does not have a rollover plan for wasted moments.
The only thing you truly have any control over, is how you’re going to respond to whatever it is life is going to bring your way. Maybe something or someone amazing will cross your path. You get to decide if you open to that or you don’t. Maybe something devastating or disappointing will happen. You have the power only inasmuch as you’re able to open to those events, also. But please don’t suffer under the delusion that you’re in control and you can put off your joy and your fun and your yes for now, so you can enjoy those things, life’s most meaningful gifts, in your future. Tomorrow isn’t promised, every single day is a gift and an opportunity to be lit up from the inside, powered by your purpose here, spreading all the love you’ve got in your heart and co-creating the story as it unfolds.
You’re either in the flow, or you’re exhausting yourself swimming against the current. When people wear themselves down like that, it’s so painful, they just want to sleep. How many different ways do we have to do that? To disconnect, to check out, to numb out? People on gadgets tweeting or “checking in,” instead of checking in in the most important ways. Being with themselves, being aware of how things are within them, being with the person next to them, and checking in there, too. Instead, we have everyone racing everywhere because we’re all so important, you know? We have places to be and we’re “swamped” and “inundated”, and wow, I’m beat, so happy there’s a Starbucks! What are we distracting ourselves from, and why are we so afraid to sit still and open to the wonder within us and the wonder around us? That’s the only power you have, opening to things as they are, facing reality as it is. Sometimes it’s full of indescribable beauty. You are a part of that. A unique, amazing part. It would be such a shame to miss that. You don’t have to wait until Friday, until your next vacation, until things ‘Calm down.” The moment is always now. If you’re just arriving, welcome to this moment! So glad you’re here. Sending you love, Ally Hamilton