P'atrás, ni pa´coger impulso.
This may sound (let alone look) exotic to some of you, but it is merely a Spanish saying that loosely translates as 'don't go back even to gain momentum'. I have long believed in this maxim. The future is forward, not behind you; therefore, we should only look and move forward, never behind/backward.
I am very blessed to be learning a lot, recently. Yet one of the things I have learned is that this bit of popular wisdom is not quite as right as I always made it out to be. It has taken me many a moment of teeth gritting and consternation; of fear of repeating mistakes; of accepting defeat; of having lost a chunk of my life. But I have to accept what is there: I seem to have created my life of three years ago, again.
Grrr!!
Grrr? Why am I upset? Although it used to have a quick answer (see above for a 'hint'), that reply is not good enough any more. Certainly, I get angry at my own need to revisit situations. I mean, is the same as having to copy the same sentence to memorise it, or retaking an exam. Yes, what irritates me is the feeling of having failed. And it is fear of failure that generated that aversion to go back - even when it would be helpful.
But when my reality is showing me the same scenarios, what can I do except reconsider my beliefs? And who is to say that the beliefs are the right ones for me, or for me at a particular point in time, a particular place, with a particular person? The certainty of only looking forward brings up many an uncertain question.
So I'm revisiting some elements, surprising myself sometimes at what I find. I often reunite with lost strengths and values which served me well, but I let go of to fit others. Mostly, I discover that I am dragging some ridiculous concepts which, hidden in the dark recesses of my mind, are only good for keeping me grounded, or preferably sinking. Safe and stuck, but don't look back! You just might find out why!
Grrr!!
I don't need to retrace steps to gain any momentum. What I do need is to go back and cut ties.
Snip, snip.
Moving on.
Wednesday 23 January 2013
Thursday 3 January 2013
Choice and the New Year
And so, the year ended. Another year, another end.
Another beginning.
As a species, we have the marvelous gift of creating new starting points for our lives. We set up dates and hours when we make a cycle end and another commence. Thus, most cultures have set 'new year days' that somehow become momentous despite a certain amount of arbitrary definition. The most arbitrary, interestingly, is the most widespread - the celebration of 31st December/1st January threshold. I mean, after all, the year itself was designed for an emperor and re-designed for a pope. Not really something that really concerns most of us, let alone the flow in nature.
And yet, this pivot point IS powerful. Despite the randomness, despite the awkwardness of ending a 12th month named after a 10th by replacing it with a month named after a god, and even despite our modern scientific thinking, it is powerful. We gather together, we party, we are enveloped in good will to each other, we revise our lives and set up ways to improve them because we let ourselves love ourselves.
It IS powerful, and pivotal, and a true new beginning because WE make so. The rest, the humbug, is just background noise.
So, despite life seemingly going on unchanged, despite the awareness that there have probably been other moments in the year where the death and beginning of cycles is more obvious (in nature or personally), despite learned cynicism towards the rite and ritual, I invite you to embrace this chance to willingly, willfully change the path of your reality.
Look at that point in time, empower yourself in the energy of communal intention, and break away. Break away from whatever it is that didn't serve you, that does not serve you. Instead, just because you, by your mere humanity, have the power to create the places where time stops and starts again, give yourself a new time, a new beginning.
It's the time of a new year. You can make it the dawn of a new life.
It's your choice.
Another beginning.
As a species, we have the marvelous gift of creating new starting points for our lives. We set up dates and hours when we make a cycle end and another commence. Thus, most cultures have set 'new year days' that somehow become momentous despite a certain amount of arbitrary definition. The most arbitrary, interestingly, is the most widespread - the celebration of 31st December/1st January threshold. I mean, after all, the year itself was designed for an emperor and re-designed for a pope. Not really something that really concerns most of us, let alone the flow in nature.
And yet, this pivot point IS powerful. Despite the randomness, despite the awkwardness of ending a 12th month named after a 10th by replacing it with a month named after a god, and even despite our modern scientific thinking, it is powerful. We gather together, we party, we are enveloped in good will to each other, we revise our lives and set up ways to improve them because we let ourselves love ourselves.
It IS powerful, and pivotal, and a true new beginning because WE make so. The rest, the humbug, is just background noise.
So, despite life seemingly going on unchanged, despite the awareness that there have probably been other moments in the year where the death and beginning of cycles is more obvious (in nature or personally), despite learned cynicism towards the rite and ritual, I invite you to embrace this chance to willingly, willfully change the path of your reality.
Look at that point in time, empower yourself in the energy of communal intention, and break away. Break away from whatever it is that didn't serve you, that does not serve you. Instead, just because you, by your mere humanity, have the power to create the places where time stops and starts again, give yourself a new time, a new beginning.
It's the time of a new year. You can make it the dawn of a new life.
It's your choice.
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