WHERE ARE YOU STANDING?
Another IPS (Inner Peace Symptom): an understanding that your own truth is based on what you feel or deduce from where you stand. [So then the question becomes: Where are you standing?]
It’s the human dilemma, it seems to me: we each have this spark of the Creative in there and it demands that we do Something to deliver the gift that each of us is to the World.
There is even a built-in expiration date on the thing. (We only get a certain amount of time here in the World, after all.)
It’s not that there aren’t guideposts, and training manuals and how-to books, and tapes, and organizations galore that are perfectly willing to tell you which way to go. Everybody has an opinion, everybody has The Right Way. Uh-huh.
GETTING ON WITH YOUR OWN DANCE
It seems to me that the only thing that’s worth anything in all the blather is knowing that you are free to do whatever you want to do, just like everybody else. It is a good starting point.
You get to choose which way you go from where you’re standing. The rest of it you make up as you go along.
It does work better if you listen to your own heartsong. It gets right lively if you dance when you can. (Trudging along with your head down tends to be so disheartening.)
Since you’re just the messenger, the gift you are holding is the important thing in all this. Your job is to make your delivery. The world is waiting on you.
(If you step on too many toes, of course, there will be consequences and you’ll either handle them or not, but that’s just another part of the story.)
Your delivery-man or -woman journey probably goes better if you can find your own way to dance.
Dreams and visions are a part of that journey. Where you go and what you do is all on you.
WHAT IF YOU’RE A NON-STARTER?
It is always an option to be a non-starter. You could just say no to all that effort and trying and turn your back on your mission. Of course you can. You’re free, remember?
The biggest problem you encounter when you give up on your visions and your dreams is that you will probably end up dissipating all this good energy that became available to you when you first started out.
When you decide to just give up, you are very likely to end up standing there in the middle of the road, scratching your head wondering how you’re supposed to share this gift you know you’re carrying.
RECURRING OBSTACLES AND OBSTRUCTIONS
The other thing about this journey is that, invariably, no matter which direction you choose to take, there will be a really big ball of knotted strings — your if-thens and your maybes and your buts and your can’ts — right in the middle of this road you’ve decided you’re supposed to be traveling down.
It is huge, this ball. It blocks the whole road.
You’ll probably have to push that ball out of the way so you can get on down the road you’ve chosen to take. (Every time you stop to take a breather, that stupid ball’s probably going to materialize right in the middle of your road again. It’s what it does.)
It is H-A-R-D. Yes, it is.
And every time the ball comes back and you’re standing there feeling disgruntled, you have to decide again: Go on? Stop? Turn around? Take the time to try to dismantle the ball (and watch it morph into some other recurring obstruction) or just keep on heading towards your dream?
You know, if you do give up on dreaming and visioning and all that and refuse to enter into or continue onward in the fray, it’s possible that you will get to be a rock that sort of sits there eroding in the wind and the wet. Just part of the landscape.
Somebody may come along and turn you into a piece of a wall or something. Maybe you’ll get to be part of some other road.
Or maybe you can transform yourself into a leaf floating down a stream, just cruising and looking pretty, bumping into things. You’re already dying, but it’s a sunny day and it’s okay. Nothing much happens.
A BETTER WAY
There’s got to be a better way, don’t you think? Here are some thoughts from motivational speaker Iyanla Vazant, speaking at the 2014 ESSENCE Music Fest, a “party with a purpose” that started in 1994 as a one-time event to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Essence, a magazine aimed primarily toward African-American women.
It’s a YouTube video, “Iyanla Vanzant On Creating a New Life Vision,” published by Essence in 2014.
The Essence Fest, as it’s known locally in New Orleans, has become the largest event celebrating African-American culture and music in the United States.
And here’s a poem:
DARING TO DANCE THE TIDE
Daring to dance the tide.
(Won’t reach my dream-place ‘less I try.)
Daring to dance the tide.
(No question ’bout it,
Those scary waves are so very high!)
Daring to dance the tide.
(Stomach in knots but my hands are steady,
My heart’s already sailing on,
Going high and wide.)
Daring to dance the tide.
(Hey, heart!
Wait for me!
Here I come….
Hoo-hoo!
What a ride!)
by Netta Kanoho
Header picture credit: “Maui Sunrise” by Angela Sevin via Flickr [CC BY-NC 2.0]
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32 thoughts on “WHERE ARE YOU STANDING?”
This created a new perspective for me. Most of the times we fall into other peoples expectations of us, and forget what we truly value. That plagued me for a long time, my parents wanted me to fall into the family traditions. But it wasn’t my interest, so i finally did my own thing. I put distance between us but i don’t regret my decision. Thanks for your article, very helpful.
Hey Garrett:
Thank you for your visit and for sharing your story. I’m glad the thing helps. Please do come again.
This is so true to me. We all have a purpose that lasts only a lifetime. What are you going to do within that time is what you have to offer. I myself am of a competitive nature. So it is hard for me to be swayed. We all have been blessed with having a choice. Same as when it comes to God are you going to choose good or evil. There is a mission for all of us. Whether we choose to not fulfill it is by your own choice. This was a good article to awaken ones mind.
Hey Ronnie: Thank you for your visit and your comments. Please do come again….
Very thought provoking, Netta. I like the imagery of being a rock, or a leaf on the tide, but best of all I like the idea of dancing through whatever happens. I’m not sure if that was your intention, but that’s what I took away from it. Thanks for opening up my mind.
Thanks for the visit and your comments, Shirley. I do sincerely hope everybody chooses to dance. It’s so much more fun that way! Please do come again!
Hi! I would like to say thanks for sharing this to us. Very interesting article and the same with the poem. I love to read poem that have lot of meaning in life, like the one you do.
Anyway, I would like to share this article to my friends. Your an amazing writer.
Have a wonderful day!!!
With a warm smile,
Joana
Hey Joana Marie…
Thanks for the visit and your comments. I do appreciate them. Please do come again.
Great article! It seems that some of us are born motivated and ready to take off at a moment’s notice and recognize our “gift”. Others need a little push. And that’s okay. You never know what’s going on in a person’s life. Those who need a little push may find it helpful to say to themselves every morning, several times if necessary, “I am a gift to this world”.
Hey Cher:
Thanks for your visit. I like your thought about affirming “I am a gift to this world.” It’s a truth after all.
Please do come again….
I love the way you wrote this article with pure heart, knowing that our life has an expiration time but sometimes we lose focus of our purpose and then we fall into the stress because we tried and failed and or its not quite happening as you thought it would, this article is full of motivation to keep striving forward thank you for your words.
Hey Erick: Thank you for the visit and for sharing your thoughts. I do appreciate it. I’m glad this thing’s been a help to you.
Please do come again….
This is a new world view for me and one that I cherish because it has addressed an Issy concerning my life.
I know that I have dreams and talents. I know what I can do to attain the dreams but doing it has been a problem for me because of fear of never getting it right.
I got inspired through this article that unless I do it I will keep standing in that same spot without making a headway and will later curse myself for not doing it.
Wow! I love the poem. It is an inspiration. I need to bookmark this as it would be my new dosage to starting every new day till I got motivated back.
Ah, RoDarrick…thanks for your visit and for sharing your thoughts. I am glad the post helps.
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I’m almost in tears as I read this post. I personally have given up on my talent because of petty she talks from other people.
I’m good at writing but because of these distraction I gave up on this gift of mine. And now I find is hard to do it as fluently as I use to.
After reading this post I’ve made a choice to explore my gifts and not hold back. I’d go round encouraging young talents not to give up on theirs. This post is a kind of life changer I must commend.
Dane, thank you for the visit and for sharing your story. Do, please, get back to unwrapping your gift! We are waiting to hear from you!
Please do come again….
I love this! It’s so true that we are responsible for our own lives and actions.
Life isn’t always easy and it is what we make of it. But it is hard not to give up sometimes when there are obstacles in our way. We just have to find ways around them and keep on going.
And decisions have to be made everyday. Sometimes we make the right ones and other times the wrong ones.
Daring to dance the tide is very enlightening too!
Any suggestions as to how to keep a positive attitude all the time when things are really going the wrong way?
Hey Rob: Thanks for your visit and for sharing your thoughts.
Hmmm. Good question, that. I hate to tell ya this but NOBODY keeps a positive attitude ALL the time. As you say, it can be really hard sometimes, this being human.
However, what I try to do when I’m down in the dumps about it all is to try to get a handle on the situation by figuring out what I, personally, can control and what is just out of my control. That one’s a big first step for turning myself around again.
If I can find the handle (see the things I can move around my own self) then I can grab that handle and swing the thing or bump it or do something with it that will start things moving in a better direction.
I feel better when I can DO something….and I do know my own limitations and take them into consideration before I start swinging. (I do know I’m not Thor and this twig I’ve got in my hand is not Mjolner, Thor’s hammer.)
Also, there’s knowing that I am ALWAYS going to pick myself up when I fall down. That’s the other one. Maybe the thing’s bigger than me. Maybe it’s meaner than me. But, by golly, nothing is as doggedy as me!
(Defiance works great when you’re a little dog, ya know.)
Hope that helps.
You write so well and I’m really glad I read your post. You see like you said, we all have an expiry date and someday its going to catch up with us. We have to live our lives or dance gracefully making sure not to step on any toes or there’ll be consequences. I liked this post and its really inspiring. Nice poem there too. Awesome.
Thanks for your visit and for sharing your thoughts, Henderson. I’m glad you enjoyed the post.
Please do come again.
Hi Netta – I must say this is one thought provoking post.
I’m curious about the leaf. Does that represent the individual that just can’t get their journey going? So they just bump and float along? I think a common problem is many are unaware as to what journey they’re supposed to be traveling.
For some, the biggest battle is finding their own way to dance. So..they end up standing.
Thanks for this opportunity!
Nathaniel, thanks for your visit and for sharing your thoughts.
I do agree that there are many people who either (a) don’t know that they CAN choose to do their own dance or (b) don’t have any idea what they would do if they ever got up on the dance floor.
The leaves that float down the stream are a metaphor, I guess, for the sort of life they end up doing…just getting pushed along by whatever currents are around them.
It’s not my own first choice as a way of living, and I’m not sure how it really is for these guys. That’s just what it looks like to me from the outside of their experience. Maybe they’ve got rich inner lives. What do I know?
Please do come again….
Thanks for this article.
I agree that there are so many different people with different advice on how to do life. I like what you said about getting on with your own dance because that’s pretty much what I try to do now. I don’t really listen to a lot of stuff about how to think or how to live because I just like to think and live in my own way.
Also for the most part I don’t try to tell other people how to think or live, unless of course it’s like they were harming someone or something like that.
I like the graphic of the person standing with all the action figures. Your writing is very good thank you!
Jen, thank you for the visit and for sharing your thoughts.
Good on ya! You go do your dance!
Please do come again.
What a way to take a look at life! Thanks for sharing this thought to me. I never thought of it that way that each one of us has a meaning.
I always think that I have to create my “meaning” to make sure that later in life I will be happy that I accomplish something. Wow, I get deep today lol.
I think all of us have different journey like you said and it will take us time to get to know ourselves and learn our true gift that God has created for us.
Nuttanee, thanks for the visit and for sharing your thoughts.
You are right, you know. We do create our own “meanings.” I think it’s a sign that each of us holds a piece of the Divine within us, actually.
We do tend to forget that we are, each of us, a unique expression of Life-Its-Own-Self. A friend of mine says that humans are really God’s way of playing. He uses what we make of our lives to figure out His own answers to His own paradoxes. I kinda like that thought.
Please do come again.
It’s crazy what a little surfing through google can do to you or where it can bring you haha. I definitely did not expect to run into this blissful site.
This has certainly been a deep read for me. It’s helped me reflect on a lot of what I currently do and try to do for the future.
I really love the idea of seeing your life as something with a start, expiration date, and something that people can try to put an instruction manual on.
This has certainly been a great read, thank you for this
Misael, thank you for the visit and for sharing your thoughts. I am really pleased that you enjoyed it and that it made you think some.
Please do come again…..
Thank you very much for this post. It’s easy to be enthusiastic about our dreams when we haven’t seen any adversity.
But once things get tough, there is that impulse to turn around and leave. Your post has helped me by reminding me of the fact that all that energy gets dissipated if we drop out. Thanks for the encouragement.
Thanks for the visit and for sharing your thoughts, Paolo. You’re right. All plans sort of go sideways when you get punched in the face. The enthusiasm can get mighty thin sometimes.
A friend of mine who is a marathon runner says those guys have this manta: Fall Forward! If you fall forward, you know that when you get up you’ll still be heading in the right direction and then all you have to focus on is getting your feet back under you and getting yourself moving again.
I’m pleased the post was helpful to you. Please come again.
I love your post because it’s a mind opener to so many people It’s so important to follow your dreams in life. And to follow your dreams you need to be very persistent and and keep moving forward.
Thank you for writing deep thoughts. We all need to meditate on this sometimes.
I’m so pleased that the post resonated with you, Claudia. Thanks for your visit and for commenting.
Please do come again.