For Sure...

I'm in a bit of an introspective mood today...  It started more like the doldrums, but then I came across this, and had a shift in my thinking and mood.  Now I'm pondering - again - what really matters and what I can do to be more mindful and aware on a daily basis, or even minute-by-minute.  I'd hate to think that it would take something cataclysmic to move me out of ennui and apathy into awareness and action.

Like many others, my intentions are good and I have an intellectual "knowing", but haven't taken that other step into internalizing and acting on what I know.  My excuse is always TIME - there's just not enough of it to go around in my current paradigm!  And yet...I know that this is my perception, and not even an accurate one...  A more honest reason is PRIORITY, and my lack of follow-through on the plan to prioritize I alerted you to a while back.

Regardless, I am now thinking - again - of  "What I Know For Sure":

• EVERYTHING happens for a reason - EVERYTHING!  I can, with almost complete confidence, say that the reason is to teach you something - usually lessons in love.  Ask, "How does this teach me love?", and you can generally see the lesson.  Sometimes the lesson is as simple as "I don't value that behavior"...
• You will get the same lesson in a variety of ways until you LEARN IT!  Don't like how your life is currently going?  Figure out what you're supposed to be learning, and move on!
• You can control NOTHING beyond the three-square-foot area that is your "personal space" - not your spouse, your children, your boss, your circumstances, NOTHING - but within that space you have ABSOLUTE POWER!  You - and you alone - are in charge of the thoughts and emotions that move you into or out of the circumstance, the mood, the job, the relationship, etc.  It is the actions you take based on those thoughts and emotions that determine your life - YOU get to write your story!
• Continuing that thought: you have to be proactive in your life.  A turning point in my personal journey came after I heard this line from the Rush song Free Will: "If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice."  It was then that I realized that I had allowed circumstances and others around me to decide for me, with close to disastrous results.
• You have to SAY.  It is complete insanity and completely unfair for you (or me) to expect anyone to meet an expectation they don't know you have!  Find loving ways to communicate your needs (and wants) to those who matter.
• The Universe (or God or Spirit or higher power or whatever label you're comfortable with) is just as willing to assist you and meet your expectations as you are willing to express them.  Again, you have to SAY.  The caveat - no frivolity or wavering here - mean what you say and what you expect and back it up with your actions.

There are other things running as an undercurrent in my head that I also know for sure, but these are the ones close enough to the surface to be able to articulate well enough to tap them out here...  If any of this is helpful to you, then I'm glad, but - like I've said before - this blog is mostly for me to keep track of and improve my own life, so these are the things I needed to hear again today - glad I told myself!  If you've read this far, then take a minute or two (or an hour or two) to ponder what you know "for sure".  I'm certainly glad Oprah challenged me to do so (not personally, but in a general readership kind of way - still valuable...)!  Have a fantastic evening, and thanks for stopping by!

Comments

[Tina H.]

I am feeling all blogged out after reading so much tonight (and into the wee hours of the morning), but I can say with pure and true honesty that THIS was the best way to end my night... this blog entry right here. Such insight and wisdom and SO much to ponder! :") I am agnostic and I love the all-inclusive aspect of your writing in this post, but aside from that, the general idea of bettering ones' self and how empowering we can be to ourselves. Perhaps we don't realize just how incredibly empowering (...influential, inspiring, motivational...) we can be in OTHERS lives though, too. :")