Preparing for significance

Notes for Chapter One)


Maya Angelou quoted, "Ask for what you want and be prepared to get it."  And throughout many spiritual, self-development, counseling, and teacher circles the same mantra is usually spoken. Furthermore, I have heard and said the following: If you believe it you shall receive it or if you speak it, you will see it; or seek and it will be found. Positive, powerful, and encouraging words, right? Those statements is not the issue I have pondered. I agree, a cheerful heart does the body and mind good. On the other hand, it's the "between point" I wrestle with. There is a place between unbelief and belief, thinking and speaking, and  seeking and finding. That "place" few pundits, pastors, preachers, teachers, coaches and counselors prepare to provide a solution for. This place, position, or state is what most people call the "gray area", when things in life are not clear, difficult, and confusing. I have had my share of gray areas and stood in the between place many times, shocked, dazed and confused or sad, mad, and defeated. That is why I am pushed to reflect a little deeper into this feeling of awkwardness of life. And I have a resolution, an insight, a possible explanation for it-- preparation. Preparation for significance.


Have you jumped in water, in a pool or ocean on a scorching hot summer day with expectation of cool relief? You emerge in the water, and as you go deeper the cooler the water feels. A quietness is all around you, peaceful, then you need air and a sense of urgency rush over you. You swim up, quickly; you see the sun's brightness the closer you get to the top, and finally you reach up to push that last time to reach the surface and gasp for air. This illustration gives you a picture of the preparation for significance.

Life can become hectic with pressures and perplexity. Relief is all we want. Answers are all we need. So we jump in aimlessly; go to whatever and whomever to get help and solutions to our problems. Temporarily, the advice and support is the relief, the thought of someone understanding and helping to meet a need is the peace we seek. Yet, without a permanent solution, the problem will lurk again and we will rush to relief...for another answer, help, a little air. Life can have a dunking effect, ups and downs, only if we choose to resolve problems with temporary solutions and always depending on others for the answers. Instead look within. Deeply within.


The path to significance is stretching yet glorifying.I discovered that problems are merely exercises to gain knowledge, wisdom, understanding and contentment. Yes, a permanent solution to heated and hated problems is contentment: the realization, on earth, we will walk a thin line between meaningless and significance. In order to learn, we must lose. In order to succeed, we must fail. To navigate through what seem to be suffocating problems, we must rest and not resist....breathe. And in that deep, cool and quiet place, a place of peace above understanding, is where significance resides. Preparation for significance comes when you toil with tears of submission, with encouraging speech, love, and faith. Trusting the process. Significance comes closer each day when you choose to dive into the deep, with quiet confidence, learning, not running from the lessons, welcoming ascension. Living higher than the problems, greater than yourself.

  

Just a quick thought: Moving more than things

I am in the process of looking for another place to stay. The move is unwelcome yet needed. And like with most change, there is discomfort. Not only is packing and moving is physical labor, it involves mental work. You see, sometimes moves are by force, not by choice. And as I am forced to move and to change and to labor through the process, it all reminds me of people and the impact the process of moving has on our mind and body.
Change is challenging but inevitable. The only thing constant is change. So if we know change is coming why is it always difficult to process when it arrives?
My first thought is the comfort of the "knowing" is much pleasant than facing the unknown. We are creatures of habit; we like the eat the same foods, go to the same places, hang with the same people, and work and live at the same places. Furthermore, for most part, its the same with our minds, we think the same thoughts, believe the same facts, have the same opinions and feel the same way.All this familiarity is healthy in our developing years, security and safety is important throughout our lifetime, but I will assert that when we become "adults", staying the same is unhealthy, unnatural, and even dangerous to our growth. You see, what doesn't grow, eventually dies. Moving our minds and bodies are essential to our growth, our becoming greater and purposeful.
As I look for a place, plan the transition, spend money on transfers, use time and energy to pack up personal items, and throw away some things, and give other things away; I realize that moving more than things is another way of life. If we want to attain a goal, get married, lose weight, buy a home, graduate from college, raise children, own a company, travel to another country, or whatever the action may be, there is a moving process; a learning; a leaving, giving up or giving in. Change is at the core of moving from one person, place, or thing to another. The moving process will be discomforting and maybe even frightening, but new things, greater things are possible with moves, with changes. Giving up old useless habits, negative people, unhealthy foods, defeating thoughts, cluttering items or thoughts make room for a the launching of the next level of life.