The Beautiful Flow of Life
I love sitting on the edge of a river or a stream, and just watching the ripples as the water cascades from one place to another. There is a very natural flow to everything. A leaf floats by. A fish swims past. There is a beautiful rhythm to it all. It all just feels like everything is happening without struggle or stress of any kind.
Is life usually this natural? Is there a flow to it? In my life there are days when it definitely does not feel that way. Those are usually the days when I think I know how things are supposed to go. I had a plan. It changed. Now, I'm asking the questions about why things are not going the way I think they should be. These are the days when I'm trying to control. These are the days when I am not letting the natural order of things happen. Why do I think I know how things are supposed to be go? It's a complicated issue, but essentially it comes down to fear. Fear that my plan will not be valued. Fear that my needs will not be met. Fear that I cannot trust what is happening outside of me.
Trust. This is really the heart of the matter for me. Do I trust that life is unfolding the way it should? Trust is easier (note I didn't say easy) when things are going well, and the changes in plans in a day lead to an obvious positive outcome. Note also that I have words like positive outcome in here. This implies that I think there are positive and negative outcomes. Lots of judgement. Lots of implied bias. Lots of control thinking. Again, it all feels ultimately like a lack of trust.
What do we do when things change in a way that seem to have a painful or negative outcome? How can we say that there is a flow or natural rhythm when something terrible happens?
Many years ago I made a life altering change by moving to South Florida. At the time this seemed to be a very painful and difficult time in my life. It seemed like my life was being turned upside down, and that the outcome was not going to be good. In this case (like many others) I had no idea what was actually happening. What was actually happening was that my life was going to change for the better. It has taken me many years to understand this. Now I understand. If I had not moved to Florida I would not have found my spiritual community in Miami, I would not have found my wonderful wife, and I would not have found the amazing diving community that I am blessed to be a part of. There are many other wonderful things that have happened due to my willingness to move to Florida. I didn't know it at the time, but time has shown me that I really didn't know what was going on.
I love hindsight. What would it be like if we could look at our past with eyes of compassion? What if we could see how it all fit neatly together like a beautiful Divine Puzzle? What if we could trust that things really have worked out exactly the way they were supposed to? It seems that if I could do that I would be able to relax a little more. When that appointment gets cancelled, the car breaks down, or a serious health issue comes up we can see it all as part of a plan. Again, when we look back at our life and see how perfectly things are working out can we not see that there was a plan?
This is the kind of flow I want in my life. This is the relaxed way of being I would like to achieve. Even in the midst of lots of activity we can have an inner calm that will allow us to take the next right action. Living in the flow doesn't signify inaction or procrastination. It in fact fosters the opposite. When we trust the flow of life we will be able to take more action, because we will be less fearful of the results. We will be able to let go of perfectionism (the ultimate creativity killer), and we will allow those parts of ourselves that have been dormant to finally flourish.
Go with the flow, and watch your life blossom! It's beautiful to watch!
Is life usually this natural? Is there a flow to it? In my life there are days when it definitely does not feel that way. Those are usually the days when I think I know how things are supposed to go. I had a plan. It changed. Now, I'm asking the questions about why things are not going the way I think they should be. These are the days when I'm trying to control. These are the days when I am not letting the natural order of things happen. Why do I think I know how things are supposed to be go? It's a complicated issue, but essentially it comes down to fear. Fear that my plan will not be valued. Fear that my needs will not be met. Fear that I cannot trust what is happening outside of me.
Trust. This is really the heart of the matter for me. Do I trust that life is unfolding the way it should? Trust is easier (note I didn't say easy) when things are going well, and the changes in plans in a day lead to an obvious positive outcome. Note also that I have words like positive outcome in here. This implies that I think there are positive and negative outcomes. Lots of judgement. Lots of implied bias. Lots of control thinking. Again, it all feels ultimately like a lack of trust.
What do we do when things change in a way that seem to have a painful or negative outcome? How can we say that there is a flow or natural rhythm when something terrible happens?
Many years ago I made a life altering change by moving to South Florida. At the time this seemed to be a very painful and difficult time in my life. It seemed like my life was being turned upside down, and that the outcome was not going to be good. In this case (like many others) I had no idea what was actually happening. What was actually happening was that my life was going to change for the better. It has taken me many years to understand this. Now I understand. If I had not moved to Florida I would not have found my spiritual community in Miami, I would not have found my wonderful wife, and I would not have found the amazing diving community that I am blessed to be a part of. There are many other wonderful things that have happened due to my willingness to move to Florida. I didn't know it at the time, but time has shown me that I really didn't know what was going on.
I love hindsight. What would it be like if we could look at our past with eyes of compassion? What if we could see how it all fit neatly together like a beautiful Divine Puzzle? What if we could trust that things really have worked out exactly the way they were supposed to? It seems that if I could do that I would be able to relax a little more. When that appointment gets cancelled, the car breaks down, or a serious health issue comes up we can see it all as part of a plan. Again, when we look back at our life and see how perfectly things are working out can we not see that there was a plan?
This is the kind of flow I want in my life. This is the relaxed way of being I would like to achieve. Even in the midst of lots of activity we can have an inner calm that will allow us to take the next right action. Living in the flow doesn't signify inaction or procrastination. It in fact fosters the opposite. When we trust the flow of life we will be able to take more action, because we will be less fearful of the results. We will be able to let go of perfectionism (the ultimate creativity killer), and we will allow those parts of ourselves that have been dormant to finally flourish.
Go with the flow, and watch your life blossom! It's beautiful to watch!
Comments
Post a Comment