Monday, July 16, 2012

Take a Step

Looking up in life has its rewards...stars, sky, clouds, birds, trees, jet streams...seeing the things that exist in a world above us is the metaphor for life that keeps us hopeful i think. I like looking up. I also like looking around and out and down. Try it. Stand in one spot and look in all directions and notice the difference in each direction. It's a bit like that great scene in Castaway with Tom Hanks near the end of the movie when we see him literally standing in the dirt intersection of four roads looking down each road and, although the roads all look similar, we know each are different and the not knowing is the scary part. The risk of seemingly taking the "wrong" road is huge, but there is no wrong road, there is only the road and that road takes you down the path you were meant to be on even though it seems like random chance or specific choice or guessing. The world has presented us yet with another chance to walk down our own road and to do it standing tall and strong and with a knowing that sometimes the roads will be hard and difficult, but in the end that road will teach us something through its twists and turns, and rough pavement, and oil slicks and two ton trucks coming the other way. Not unlike riding a motorcycle down a road with turns that present themselves in a way that is so perfectly planned yet so unknown and if you are in perfect stride and trim and rhythm you adapt to the terrain and the speed and the fear and doubt to get through one turn and onto the next turn with grace and a smile leaving behind a quiet triumph of the spirit and soul and a crowd of love and wonder and awe because you simply did it.  You simply showed up and travelled with the others on the same road for a small moment in time and you did all you could to be good and kind and loving, even on the days you would have killed a kitten or stomped a dove or driven off a cliff...you didn't; and so your road took you up and away into the sky and mountains and trees, all of them caressing your fire and passion for the moment you turned left instead of right, and carried on and on with fierce love for all around you and most importantly for yourself...for your own spirit and sweet essence of life that gets you up in the morning without knowing exactly what the purpose may be or why, and takes you to a place every day of wonder and sadness and hope and despair, and gifts of the soul that may or may never be opened or realized, but they are there stored up in the eternal world of your own mind and heart. So get up and look around and listen to the quiet beat of the heart and then take a step...it doesn't have to be a big step or a step in the "right" direction since we know there is no such thing. The mere act of taking a step is the perfectly designed momentum to move us through anything and that is the perfect design of life.  And that is the perfect moment. And that is the perfect direction. And that is the sweetest step you can take.

Love and Understanding.
J

1 comment:

mom said...

justin
loved this blog entry...such wisdom and an invitation for all of us to practice 'self-cherishing' all the moments in the Four Directions, all the emotions and experiences that so auspiciously cross our paths--to what end, we never know but with fellow Tribe Members to share it all with, it makes the journey not always the easiest but, like you say, the sweetest.

mom