We are constantly writing the story of our life, whether we want to or not, whether we are aware or not. The course and sum of our decisions, or lack thereof, intertwine the fabric of our own personal narrative. If nothing more, our memory serves as a monument to what was meaningful in life.
As we traverse this journey, the point of balance is always to be walked—slowing down enough to enrich ourselves in the detail of this experience or pushing ourselves towards the next adventure. Through it all, presence is the key.
As humans, our aversion to loss outweighs our propensity to gain. This is what makes it hard to move on from things, because we fear that we will permanently lose what we give up and never reclaim a semblance of the reality we once held so dearly in our hands. What we rarely consider, however, is the chance for transformation. The chance for an encounter that changes the course of your story, not because you wanted it to, but because you were willing to go where life took you.
I think openness is the single largest determinant of one’s ability to adapt to circumstance, even in the most dire of situations. By being open and accepting to whatever will come your way, anxiety is lessened and the possibility for positive change is blown open. Slowly but surely, we begin to move with the river.
At the end of the day, only you can write the close to one chapter and pen the next opening. The only question is, are you ready to let go?
“So, we were born happy. We lost it. We were born with the gift of life. We lost it. We’ve got to rediscover it. Why did we lose it? Because we were working actively. They taught us to work actively, to make ourselves miserable. How did they do that? By teaching us to become attached. By teaching us to have desires so intense that we would refuse to be happy unless they were fulfilled.”
— Anthony de Mello