“If you board the wrong train it is no use running along the corridor in the opposite direction.” —- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The strange bizarre feeling that something is wrong sweeps over you. It feels as if a shadow was hovering and closing in on the space around your existence, and you have little power or control over the direction your life is taking. Sometimes things appear to be working . . . or so you assume. Then out of nowhere you are right back to running against yourself, your life, your dreams, hopes, vision and beliefs. Things have accelerated out of control, and you are suffocating under the weight of your choices, decisions, compromises and blind hope. This feels like a continuing nightmare, that keeps repeating with the frightening acuity of an ill-directed missile. Where in your life’s journey did you take that wrong turn, make that wrong decision, step-up for the wrong choice or made a commitment that has slowly destroyed your life? When did you just settle for things as they are, and become comatose to what was unfolding in every minute of every day to just go along to get along? Vernon Law expresses it another way . . . “Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lessons afterwards.”
The realization of your conscious awareness in knowing how wrong things are in your life, may come immediately . . . in 10 years, 20 years, 30 years . . . or never. You may become conscious of your dilemma, and decide not to do anything about the circumstances, thereby condemning yourself to a lifetime of settling and never having the courage to choose a better path for growth, opportunity, vision, spirit, experience and happiness. The excuses for this choice are legion, because you will rationalize to infinity . . . in order to protect your misery, thereby limiting your movement for one reason or another. Sound a bit familiar? In the words of Rasha . . . another thought is, “The nature of your world is no more and no less than a reflection of the composite vision of the consciousness present.”
We meet people in our lives that spark an idea, flame, movement, vision, and captivate our imagination through creativity. It is the same with our capacity to ignite that flame within ourselves, and face the truth . . . unvarnished. We must be our own self-starters and recognize that we must initiate a change in our lives, if one is dogmatically necessary. No one knows better than you . . . no one. The only one that can save you is . . . you. That is the bottom line, and before you realize it a lifetime will pass before your eyes . . . leaving the ashes of possibility and hope . . . forever lost. There is time, choice, opportunity, growth, hope, change and your conscious decision to make that leap in courage and faith sustained by the words of Jack Kornfield, “A young monk asked the master, ‘How can I ever get liberated?’ The master replied. ‘Who has ever put you in bondage?’” JLR