“Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am.” -Parker J. Palmer
We live our life based on choices. Are we making these life choices from our brokenness or our wholeness? While it might sound like an easy answer or one answer is more desirable that the other, I think we choose from both – at different times in our lives.
When we may be feeling broken it is important to remember that Light shines through the broken pieces. For example, the light shines through the crack in the window shade, when something is broken open then light can enter. When a seed is planted it must break open for the sprout to begin to take root and the plant begin to grow. May things blossom, shift, and grow from a place of brokenness. If we are whole all of the time I believe we may lose out on opportunities for expansion and growth. While I believe that beneath everything, the spiritual Truth is that of Wholeness, on the human experience side, we may appear to be ‘broken’.
Fear, doubt, anger, all of these can keep us from living the life that we dream that we want. What happens if we choose to remain in these emotions? I believe these emotions have the power to transform us, give us incentive to shift and make other choices if need be. What would happen if we were able to find the courage and strength to do something different? Make one different choice? Maybe it would be like the butterfly effect? The butterfly effect is a story about how one minute change can effect outcomes. For example, there is a story that Caroline Myss shares in her book, Entering the Castle, about the Butterfly Effect. It goes something like this: A politician works hard to get his candidate to win an election. He is pretty secure in believing that his politician so he decides to treat himself to a time travel adventure the day before the election. He goes before the person with the time travel machine and explains what he wants to do. The person tells him that he must be very, very careful because if he falls, touches anything, or does anything to alter what he sees in the past that it will affect everything leading up to this day. The politician agrees to the instructions and goes on his time travel trip. While he is in the past he slips and kills a tiny butterfly. When he travels back to the present day he decides to tell no one about what happens. Well, when he returns he finds out that his candidate lost the election. Just as this story reflects, every choice, even the choice to not make a choice (which is still a choice) affects our life.
Our choices start with our attitude. How would you describe yours? Is it positive? Joyful? Loving? If your attitude is not what you would like it to be I invite you to try a new one on…You might find that you like this way of living far better than the one you are currently choosing…