Human nature encompasses so many experiences, realities, and truths. This quote by Confucius (also the title of a 2018 book of fiction by Raphaelle Giordano) asks us to consider the natural longing for a different life from the one we are given.
It is understandable to ache and long for something different/better. Over at Hiraethlon we always consider our relationship to longing - for home, for identity, for belonging. The kick is that, ultimately, our search for longing and be-longing takes us in a long circle back to our center. Now this can create frustration (because the longing is for something else, right?) but it can also encourage relief and peace. It reminds me of that saying, it was you the whole time.
What if it was you the whole time? All the climbing and scraping to find ground familar to your soul, your heart, your mind that hungers for something better than what you know? I don't think this type of wandering and searching happens and then we are given that better, larger, greener pasture. I don't think we suddenly come into guaranteed blissful awareness.
Realizing the conditions we are working with and how to find our center within those circumstances is the true journey and not a journey everyone wants to take.
There may be two lives you envision: one that you want to leave behind and the other a life you envision in the future. But there is a very important life that is forgotten about: the one you live right now.
What micromovement can you do to add some peace and contentment to your day today, your now, in-this-moment life? Can you sip your drink slower? Can you pause while looking out the window and move your gaze past the noise and bustle and find the cardinal in the tree across the street?
What would it feel like to know you can dream and also know you are the architect of the life you live now? What does that bring up in you?
I can't write a blog like this and not acknowledge the terrible societal and cultural conditions so many people must exist within. This is not a world where everyone feels safe. Bigotry, racism, phobia, and hatred make it very dangerous for people to own their identity, culture, and basic human rights. It is not safe to publically be in one's authentic center. I dream of a day when this world spins differently and people realize their interconnectedness, allowing everyone to own their centers, their sense of internal home, to celebrate their "one wild and precious life" (Mary Oliver, "The Summer Day").
In Okayness,
LM