Photo courtesy of Laurie Wallin

Consider.

It is often said that when you know that something is about to go horribly wrong, but hasn’t just yet, then you are in the “quiet before the storm.” But what if …

• instead of thinking something is about to go horribly wrong, you only focus on all the things that could go wonderfully right?
• silence or “quiet” was used to transcend through, instead of swim in, the negativity?
• the storm never arrives; or
• it arrives but you are empowered by positive thoughts?

Any of these alternates completely change the panoramic view on any given situation. There are things we can control and there are things we cannot. We can control our thoughts. We can control our outlook. We can control our actions. Though it is not always easy, it can be done. We cannot, however, control the thoughts and/or actions of another or Nature or the Universe.

Two facts are certain for humans: we are born and we die. In between the time of birth and death, we constantly make choices of how we spend that time, regardless of the situations that arise.  Happy, sad, optimistic, pessimistic, loving, detesting, constructive, destructive, forgiving, condemning, diligent, impatient, tolerant, resistant, serene, stormy, grateful, demanding … the list goes on and on.

We can spend precious seconds of life fretting about what may or may not happen in the future. We can spend precious seconds of life regretting about what we should have or should not have done in the past. The third choice, and my favorite: we can just be in the now, making it the best “present” we can with what we have mentally, physically and spiritually.

When we come to the end of our human journey, before our Soul returns to its divine origin or next journey, wouldn’t it be wonderful to celebrate a life fulfilled and a purpose met, in light and love, instead of the opposite?

Every second of life given is a new beginning, a chance to be the wonderful you that you are ~ you were born with purpose.  What is that purpose?  What is your choice?  It is up to you, not anyone else.

I leave you with a quote by Henry Miller, that sums this up nicely:

Every day we slaughter our finest impulses. That is why we get a heart-ache when we read those lines written by the hand of a master and recognize them as our own, as the tender shoots which we stifled because we lacked the faith to believe in our own powers, our own criterion of truth and beauty. Every man, when he gets quiet, when he becomes desperately honest with himself, is capable of uttering profound truths. We all derive from the same source. There is no mystery about the origin of things. We are all part of creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we have only to open up, to discover what is already there.

Namaste _/♥_