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Today's
Quotation:
I hate ruts.
Ruts are common, unimaginative, and oh, so boring.
I know because I've spent time in them.
Actually, I even took up
emotional residence in a
couple. To make
them more comfortable,
I even decorated them.
I adorned the walls with excuses: "I can't," "I tried," and "I
don't wanna." Those are just a few
of the plagues, I mean plaques, I hung
in my ruts.
Patsy Clairmont
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Today's
Meditation:
How
many of us always avoid falling into ruts and staying in
them for longer than we really want to? I suppose that
ruts aren't bad in and of themselves-- and some probably can
be rather helpful-- but when we get comfortable in them and
let them define us and our lives, there most certainly is a
problem. Ruts can keep us from expanding, from
reaching out and seeing and doing new things.
On
a roadway, ruts are caused by the constant passage of
wheels-- many wheels from many vehicles all following the
same path. After a while, all of the wheels cause
indentations in the ground, and as time goes on they get
deeper and deeper. Eventually, any vehicle that comes
down the road must follow the ruts, for it's almost
impossible for the wheels to escape them once they're in
them. Everyone has to follow the exact same
path. And every new vehicle that passes just makes the
ruts even deeper.
When
we get into our personal ruts, we follow the same patterns
of behavior every single time. For some people, it's
something like "Come home, eat, sit in front of the TV
for a few hours, go to bed." Someone who teaches
may follow the same template for class plans every day for
years. In relationships, we may fall into the habit of
doing the same things every time we get together. Ruts
don't allow for newness or exploration-- their very nature
keeps us stuck on the same path that we've always been on.
They
are fairly easy to get out of. First of all, of
course, we have to recognize the rut that we're in, and then
quite simply, we have to decide to make a change and do
something different. That
particular decision can end up being one of the most
important ones that we make for ourselves, as we can open up
whole new worlds for ourselves, just by deciding to do so.
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