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Today's
Meditation:
I've often missed opportunities in my life because they
didn't fit "who I was." Retrospect has
often told me that my decisions at the time were rather
silly, because I later learned that who I was, was subject
to change, and that the ways in which I look at the world
in one moment may not be the same ways that I will look at
the world in a few moments, in a few weeks, or in a few
years.
What we are is simply the result of our reactions to all
of the teachings that we've encountered and experiences
that we've lived through. When something happens to
us, we "learn" from it, but the learning that we
do by no means is final or definitive. The person
who we are today is not the same person that we will be
one year from now. And we'll grow into that new
person only by letting go, only by keeping in mind that we
are dynamic, not static, beings who thrive with change and
growth, but who diminish ourselves with stagnation and by holding on to the old beliefs and ideals that no longer
serve us well.
Many people have sacrificed their realities of being
business people in order to become teachers. Many
have sacrificed their realities of being a married person
in order to escape abuse and manipulation. Many have
sacrificed their dependence on alcohol and drugs in order
to live "clean" lives. Many, many people
realize eventually that certain paradigms, no matter how
comfortable they may be because we know them well, are
unhealthy and destructive. Others realize that
though things are going well, they could be going better,
and it's necessary to sacrifice the status quo in order to
improve life.
There really are few limits to what we could become, other
than our own limiting beliefs. When we do want to
become something else, though-- something better-- we do
have to sacrifice who we are. We can change from
becoming a frustrated worker and a good husband and father
to being a satisfied entrepreneur and still a good husband
and father-- not every aspect of our self must
change. But if we do want to grow, we do need to
leave some things behind, just as the butterfly leaves
behind the cocoon and its life as a caterpillar.
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