“You cannot travel on the Path before you have become the Path itself.”
-Buddha
Clarity and achievement of significant purpose predisposes that an individual has the consciousness of being “It” in terms of choices in one’s own life and that there is no point in living according to what others think or say, or being restricted by the limits and limitations of others. Their lives are their lives. Your life is your life and you need to make your choices accordingly. There is no one-size-fits-all way to live life. People are individuals and have different flight paths and life stories.
“Life forms no logical patterns. It is haphazard and full of beauties–which I try to catch as they fly by, for who knows whether any of them will ever return?”
-Margot Fonteyn
Thank goodness for the beauties in life, eh? Fonteyn is right that a lot of life experience is fleeting, ephemeral, and essentially one-time. in that sense, opportunities, especially to experience beauty and love, do exist. One simply has to risk to activate these possibilities. And, for a lot of people, risk is, unfortunately just a four-letter word that limits the possibilities of their lives.
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”
-Frederick Douglass
Nothing good generally arises from passivity, laziness, not making choices, risk, hard work, and determination. each day I work on moving ahead in several ways, on several levels, in several worlds. A good day is when I can look back at the end of it and appreciate various progress and progressions forward.
“One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.”
-Andre Gide
There have been days, weeks, and months when I have lost sight of the shore and significant purpose. Sometimes there was great restlessness or anxiety about lacking significant context. But, as with all journeys, they are processes and patience can help. Robert Frost talked of clearing the leaves on a pond to see more clearly, and sure enough, if one does, one will gradually see the purpose and path that are intended to inform one’s life ultimately.
Another poet, John Keats, inspired me with his “Negative capability” (the title of one of my books), which he defined as “when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, and doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact or reason.”
Much of my retired life has gone that way, and I, going back to one of the earlier quotes here, could only have started on my own, more significant Path when at 40, I started doing more for myself and less for others, ironically. The consciousness that I was an individual who didn’t need others or could function well on my own was the beginning of the road to greater, more focused consciousness, and the best writing I and work I have taken most pride in. Becoming a full individual entails risk and increased responsibility, but the benefits and increased soulfulness are worth the risk and any loss of security.