Creating our lives

.
There are any number of teachings that will hint at, or even plainly say that we do all shape, mold, and in short create our own lives. And no matter how solid we are in our spiritual outlook on life, no matter how good we are at taking responsibility for our own thoughts, our own actions, choices, decisions ~ the mere premise that we would shape and mold our own lives is a hard one to come to terms with.

Because if we truly believe that we create our own lives, it means that not only the good things that happen to us are of our own doing, but also the not so good things, or even the bad things that happen to us are somehow part of our creation. And that then defies our logic! Why, for heavens sake, would we want something bad to happen to us? Why, if we are creating our own lives, aren’t we living the good life? A life of luxury? Or at least an easy, smoothly flowing along kind of life? After all, if we are in charge, then why not create it??

The answer most thought of from a spiritual perspective may well be that if life was easy, we probably wouldn’t give ourselves a chance to learn our life lessons. If we would create the life of our choosing, we might not entertain any karmic repercussions our actions may have. After all, it stands to reason that we would create our subsequent lives in the same manner.

Just looking around at our own lives, and at the lives of friends and family, it doesn’t quite seem to work that way. Pretty much each and every one of us have our own set of problems ~ either to content with or to solve. And even that doesn’t seem to be entirely up to our free will choice when we look at first glance…

In other words, even when we can wholeheartedly agree with the concept of creating our own lives, it is still something that we fail to master productively.
Somehow we have a hard time recognizing what connections between cause and effect are at play as we are living our day-to-day lives.

And then there is this one little thing; this pesky tiny voice that may ask us at every turn “Creating your own life? Is that really up to you? Are you really that competent concerning (your) life?”

Perhaps it is time for us to take responsibility, to take charge, and to set out to create the life we desire!
.
.

What if?

.
Have you ever asked yourself, perhaps in a quiet moment, what if?
What if you had acted differently? What if you had been a bit more daring; more brave? What if you had backed away from that decision? What if you had followed directions? Or what if you had always made certain to do things your way?

There must be hundreds of ‘what if’ questions. Hundreds of ways that things might have worked out in a modified, or even a new, up to now unimagined manner. If only we had perceived things differently… Thought differently. Done differently.

Whenever we ask ourselves ‘what if?’ it is not surely not the same as having regrets. We can build a fantastic life for ourselves, and yet still have this question in the back of our minds that says: “What if?”
It seems to be not as much about how good things are turning out for us, but rather how things could have turned out differently. More adventurous. Or perhaps more authentic; more true to ourselves. To that part of us we know is there, but we hardly ever allow to shine.

That makes that the real riddle that is connected to the age old question ‘what if?’, may have more to do with what we have been told, what we are taught, what we have learned, and whether that combination of things we have been told, things we have been taught, and experiences we have had in life is important enough to override our desire to be who we feel we are truly meant to be…

How important is the opinion of others to us? Do we keep bending to other people’s wishes in order to keep the peace? Do we still believe that the things we were told when we were young, are the absolute, unequivocal truth?

Or are we getting at a point in our lives on which we say “What if that was someone else’s truth, but it isn’t mine. What if we started living our own truth, our own values? What if we start putting effort into being authentic; being our own unique selves…”
It is a moment in life that can pop up at any time.
It is that point where the ‘what if?’ question doesn’t apply so much anymore to the things that have already happened in out lives, but rather applies to how we decide to live our lives from now on; how we will unfold our own, individual, unique potential…

Now that might be the adventure of our lives!!
.
.

Antique clocks

.
I like clocks, especially the old ones that still are driven mechanically, rather than electrical or the ones that are battery operated. Although the latter ones often are way better at displaying the correct time. So when you really need to know the correct time at any moment of the day, those often are a better solution…

But those old clocks have more character. As if they have a personality all their own.
Big or small, they are often stately figures. And whether their pace is fast or slow, more like the heartbeat of Father Time himself, doesn’t make them better necessarily. It doesn’t take away from their character or personality either, if anything it adds to that.

Now, I wouldn’t go as far as desiring to collect old clocks or watches. On the other hand, I do cherish the ones that have come my way over the years. Therefore the ones that do call my house home, also have been in my family for many long years. They have many stories to tell. And, as long as I pay attention and pull up their weights in time ~ wind their springs tight ~ they should continue their own rhythmic tic-toc heartbeat, and show the ‘sort of’ correct time.

However, the two old wooden clocks do not agree.

They have come into my life at different times, and they have taken different routes to arrive. Even though they have originated in the same branch of my family, their characters and personalities are quite different from each other.

Where they are the same is in the fact that I cannot get either one of them to start moving again. As one might say, they give the right time twice in every 24 hour span. And that has been true for years.

It hasn’t been for lack of trying on my part. To my ears that slow tic-toc rhythm brings a sense of stability and comfort to my space. Yet no matter what I do, or how hard I try, these two clocks stubbornly keep quiet.

The interesting thing though, is that both stopped at exactly the same time. Their hands frozen in the same position. And as it turns out, it is a significant time. It is the time at which the heartbeat of their previous owner stopped, many years ago…

And so here they are.
Beautiful, antique clocks, with wonderful characters; telling me twice a day that on that other side ~ in that other world ~ there is no need for time…
.
.

Finish

.
All of us are striving to finish in one way or another.
Whether it is a project we are eager to finish, a job, a trip, household chores; or even reading that book ~ if only to know how it ends… And while there are all kinds of events where we like to finish in first place, most of the time it is more important to just finish.

Finishing whatever is keeping us occupied is not a race, it is a cycle nearing completion. Which in turn implies that after we have finished it, there will be space and energy for new things to come into our lives.
Just looking at it, finishing up is a good thing! So let’s go ahead and be done with it!!

Often that is exactly how it goes.
The end of a project (or job, or chore) is in sight, and with renewed energy we just finish up so we can relax and enjoy the smell of roses…

And then there are those cycles ~ those things that are nearing their completion ~ that, the closer to the finish we get, the more we tend to stop going for it. Because the moment we finish, we are faced with a finality. It is as if something is about to fall away from our lives, never to return.
The end of an era…

We may not be ready yet to face life without it; even fear a sense of emptiness. As long as we are working on ‘it’, no matter how close to the finish we are, at least part of that particular cycle is still in our lives. And especially when that cycle has been in our lives for a long, long time, it can be hard to imagine what our lives would look like once it is finished.

It can be difficult to get excited about something that we cannot clearly imagine…

Yet in the grand scheme of things, even if we take our time getting to it, there will be that time when all is said and done, when everything is clean, loose ends tied up, and all is finished.
Over. Done with.

In the grand scheme of things, there will be new adventures. New people to meet, new things to see. New experiences that in time will become new memories…

So when we find ourselves experiencing a little resistance to actually finish up, perhaps it is good to realize that whatever we have experienced in this previous cycle will never be truly lost to us. It will live on in our minds and our hearts. It will also be a stepping stone for us to get to the new things that are awaiting us just around the corner…
.
.

Show and tell

.
It is not just for those of us that are expressing themselves creatively that it is important to have the opportunity to ‘show and tell’. To let others know what you are working on, where you are standing with it, whether you are encountering problems with it, or if you happen to find great fulfillment in actually doing it.
And it really doesn’t matter a whole lot whether you are doing a ‘show and tell’ just for your friends, your family, or on a bigger scale like an event or fair ~ the idea is to share about the things you are doing. As it turns out it can be an inspiration to others, yet any feedback can also be very helpful to gain new and different perspectives yourself. To start seeing things in a different light, and consequently, start guiding your project in an even more productive direction.

Where family or friends are possibly the smallest scale to do a ‘show and tell’ on; doing a talk on TED would arguably be the biggest scale event for a ‘show and tell’. But then there is an enormous amount of other venues, other places, other audiences where we can show others and tell the world about what we do, like fairs, job-related events, markets, and yes, the internet etc.

The thing that is totally personal is what we expect to get out of doing a ‘show and tell’.
Sometimes it is enough to just have fun doing it, and any real interest or productive feedback is a bonus. Other times we may aim for our ‘show and tell’ to be a low key ~ or perhaps even a full blown ~ marketing event. Not just showing what we do and telling the world about it, but definitely trying to make a couple of sales as well! And these ‘sales’ may result in having more, new people on our mailing lists; or an actual exchange of money and product…

The one thing that we pretty much always do expect, independent of the venue or what we are aiming for, is that there are people who are interested in listening to our ‘show and tell’. Especially when it is on a fair or event where we pay for our space ~ be it a table or a booth.
If there are few visitors, or even none at all, then the whole positive, inspiring, re-enforcing ‘show and tell’ can turn upon itself and can quickly become an experience that leaves a bitter taste in our mouths…

It is one of those things that makes me think that planning for a ‘show and tell’ in a relaxing, homey atmosphere, is the very best we can hope for!
.
.