Remain Awake

“As you journey along your path, whether it be wide or narrow, remain awake.”

There are certainly days in my life where I remain numb with the distractions of life. There are also times when I am remain very awake. So awake that I feel the need to find a mind numbing activity to avoid what I don’t want to see, hear or feel. Numbing can happen purposefully or automatically. I am not talking about using substances as a way of numbing, although that is a very common and real way of numbing. What I am talking about is daily distractions and avoidance. It is easy to get caught up in all this things going on around us or avoid that which we don’t want to feel or deal with. It is also true that our mind and our bodies often protect us from too much pain in life. However, we can’t hide there all of the time. The key is to remain awake enough to pay attention to our journey and where our paths are taking us. We must stay on course until we understand what we have, want and need. If we are not awake enough, our steps veer off our intended destination and we find ourselves lost. We can’t see what is blocking our path. It can be painful to be awake, but in order to unblock our paths we must endure.  We don’t have to do it all at once. We can take baby steps or giant leaps, but we can endure and unblock our paths.

Are you awake? Can you look at the pain enough to unblock your path? It just takes the first step, then the next and the next. Go ahead you can do it!

 

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Tragedy On Our Journey

Every day we are faced, or should I say bombarded with negativity and tragedy. If you are like me it can knock you down again and again.  BAM! Down you go! BOOM! From the other direction, down you go! Some day’s it makes us so weary that we feel like we will never get up again. We shut down, we avoid. Then somehow we stand up again and begin to move forward. Little by little we see the light again and we are stronger! We have an innate ability to find hope, strength and to get back up and continue our journey.

Whether you believe in God, a power greater than yourself, or your spirit within there is hope and strength. Surround yourself with that power and those who embody it.  You will find the strength to stand up and go forward. For me, I believe that God picks us up and dusts us off and says, “It’s okay, I am with you. You can do this. Just focus on the good!”  He says. “Everyday there will be things that will knock you down, but there are also things that lift you. Turn in the other direction! Trust me and you will see it! If you can’t see it, I will carry you until you can.”

We are incredibly resilient even when we don’t think we are. Follow the journey of your heart.  The path is full of life.  It is good, bad, beautiful, ugly and tragic; but so full of life.

The Journey Around the Bend

When you think of life’s journey and what is around the bend, do you approach it with fear or with excitement? Our journey is influenced by what we have experienced in the past.  When I was younger there was so much uncertainty and fear about what was ahead.  It wasn’t until I came to terms with my past that I began to approach my journey with excitement. So, you ask, how do you come to terms with your past?  If there were an easy answer we would all be approaching life with excitement.  Coming to terms with our past requires that we begin with opening our minds and our hearts.

Opening our minds means to set aside our beliefs, assumptions and ideas about someone or some situation and be open to other views.  If we set a complex object in the middle of a group of individuals, almost invariably, each will see something different.  When others don’t see things the same as we do it is because they can’t. Their experiences have given them a different view. Our job is to respect their view and not take personally. To honor their view as equally important, not wrong or right, bigger or worse. Once we can achieve this then we can begin to open our minds to new experiences. We can begin to truly hear one another we can resolve conflicts, compromise or just let it go and move forward.

Opening our hearts is yet another level and a much scarier one. In order to open our hearts we must become vulnerable to fear and hurt.  If our experience is one of being shamed, abandoned or attacked then we will be less open to it. However, in the midst of these vulnerabilities is where healing begins. We can not be open to excitement about the future unless we allow our hearts to open, to heal. Years ago I read somewhere that joy and pain go through the same door and if we block the pain, we block the joy. Change travels from the head to the heart. That channel must be open. We must grieve, feel our feelings, and face our inner demons, otherwise true change can not exist and we stay stuck.

In my own journey I too have been challenged to face my past and my inner demons. Once I was able to do so, my inner demons had no more power over my journey. For me, I also needed the support of others and my faith in order to begin,  sustain and endure my journey. Healing took the place. Hope, excitement and joy prevailed.  Step by step, little by little, change occurred.

Don’t let your past stand in the way of the excitement of what lies ahead. You are of value and deserve to enjoy your journey.