What makes us rise from mediocrity and soar to greatness?
But is this Living?
What about Us? What about our Dreams? What about our Hopes? What about that still nagging voice inside us which keeps trying to make itself heard above the noise and traffic around us?
"Is this It?"
"When did we miss the turn-off to excitement, creativity, meaning and fulfilment?"
Man's search for meaning...A worthwhile read, written by Viktor Frankl, about trying to find meaning in the horror and desolation of Nazi Germany during World War II.
But do we ever really search for meaning in our own lives? It is more likely that we would rather watch some TV, or have a drink with friends than have to grapple with our inner demons. Soul searching is for Buddhist monks or muesli eating hippies after a joint or two.
But what about us? Do we not want more from life?
I hear you saying - but life is so busy, and the economy is so bad, and our relationships are so strained - we do not have time to go sit on a mountain and contemplate about meaning and purpose.
Ah ha! That is precisely why you need to stop and take a long deep breath (hopefully of fresh air). If you do not know where you are going, and if you do not know who you are, how can you possibly be successful in business, relationships, or just plain living!
We have the process all screwed up. We think -
If we just Have the things we want, then would be able to Do the things we want to do and then we would Be happy.
(Thanks to Neale Donald Walsch in his book "Conversation with God" for opening my mind to this concept - which I have modified a bit.)
But this is not it at all. Look at life this way - and you cannot find lasting happiness. Trying to Have things is illusive. Absolutely nothing which you aspire to own, or to have will ever bring you happiness, since we never find fulfilment in what we have.... there is always something newer, better, shinier, etc. which makes what we have, not good enough.
Getting back to our travelling metaphor - the problem is that we tend to focus on Arriving, rather than the Journey. Be brave, take a chance and forget about where you are going - but luxuriate in every aspect of the journey - live for the moment and you will be surprised to quickly find that where you thought you were going, is not where you want to go at all.
Before we even have a possibility of finding that elusive state of happiness we dream of, we need to explore our very own existence. We need to Be. To Be is not a state of doing, it is not about arriving and it is not about having things. To Be is to find the true nature of who we are. You cannot buy this at a Drive Thru. You need to grapple with who you are and you need to stop trying to Be anything - you must just Be. Can we do that? Its not easy. Our entire life, education, work, and existence in our modern society has not prepared us to Be.
The revision of the above process is
We need to Be happy and contented, before we can Do things - and only the will we Have.
We need to be content with who we are, we need to celebrate ourselves, we need to know what we want, and believe we already have it. We need Faith - faith that we are worthy of greatness and faith that we are already great, worthwhile and worthy!
As we take time to knowwho we are, things will fall into place in our lives - and as we learn to Be, we will find that we can Do more and morel
To Be or Not to Be - is not the question, it is the answer. We must Be otherwise we Not Be.....
Lex's Space http://alexius.posterous.com
