“Are you out of touch with your deepest dreams? The time to start thinking about this is now.” -Unknown
Each and every one of us has the power to shape our destiny. Imagine destiny as a point of light. It is constant, centered, fixed. As you move, the light is there. When you lose sight, understand that it is still there, but that something is obscuring your view. Remembering it is there will cause the obscurity to pass like a cloud over the moon.
With this light in mind, take a moment to observe. Close your eyes or use them to graze on your surroundings. Whether you prefer sound or silence, it doesn’t matter. The key is to harness your energy toward your five senses and notice what you feel. Do you hear the chirping of birds, or the rattling of a train riding by? Or do you see the gentle sway of a curtain, feel the cool breeze on your face? Worry not what these things mean, just experience this awareness. Processing your surroundings in such a way so that you can sense or feel how it affects you can inspire change in your life, which can mean anything from cleaning your room to taking a stroll to moving to another country. There is no one right way to live. Listen, read, or watch the news to witness all the ways people negatively handle stress, anxiety, and overall unhappiness. You will see that what they all have in common is desperation. It is often said that desperate people do desperate things. But what are they searching for? Desperation stems from an unnecessary lack. The sufferer grasps for materials external of himself to fulfill a void. The truth is, though, that we all have what we need already within us.
We struggle to piece together the parts of a quilt for which we don’t have instruction. We do, though, have an idea of we what the quilt to look like; this idea or dream moves us forward.
Sometimes a project demands the creator to let it rest so that its essence can reveal itself. Too much human intervention soils the spirit of freedom embodied in all beings. Many believe Michelangelo’s allegedly unfinished “Slave” sculptures to be his most moving because the energy of the artist and the energy of the marble are opposing yet embracing. One does not impose upon the other; instead, they reflect the harmony of being in-process. Think not of your creation, your life, as a chore, a daily job. Staring at a block of marble, Michelangelo would envision his sculpture already inside. Every chisel was purposeful. Similarly, fused to our dreams, we pave our own way.