Dancing in the rain

Fresh Starts

It’s not often that one gets the opportunity to start fresh in life. Maybe I should rephrase that to say it’s not often that one TAKES the opportunity to shed the life that they have lived for x many years and takes a different road to see what lies around the next curve.

For some folks it might be economic suicide to just pull the plug and hit the road. For others it might be their salvation from the life they created that has gone from Dream to Nightmare. Nevertheless, if you do decide to follow your bliss and do what you want more than what you thank you have to do, it will not come without sacrifice at some level.

You will be leaving the security of the known, which is a misnomer. Life is no more secure than an investment was with Bernie Madoff. Security is a misnomer as well. Think about it. What in your life is really secure, meaning it will be there when all hell breaks loose in life. And you know sooner or later it will.

I think this faulty believing is the root of most anxiety in folks today. We want with all our hearts for this myth to be true. But it ain’t. It’s akin to believing in Santa or the Easter Bunny. I know you don’t want to hear this. Neither did I until I realized how ludacris it was to keep thinking this way. Not to mention the joy I now feel since I started embracing the reality of life rather than the plastic myth of what life “should be” over what it actually is.

Heck, I always thought/believed my first marriage would last forever, ‘til death do we part. I also thought that about my second marriage. But life has this way of throwing us curve balls that we did not anticipate in the beginning.

Things like addictions, diseases, lost love, affairs, more affairs, kids that didn’t act the way you thought they would, pestilence. I just added the last one for effect. I hope it worked.

I don’t give an owl’s hoot how much faith you have, or the meditation practice you have had for 22 years, or the lucky walrus tooth you keep in your pocket. Let me tell you something. Shit happens. Yes, that’s right, things occur ( if you’re Baptist), but mark my word, something will sooner or later rain on your parade.

The key is learning to dance in the rain. Find a new step by listening very closely to the new music of your life. Stop and sit down on a stump and cogitate what “is” in your life rather than stomping your feet and throwing a tantrum because life is not showing up the way you planned.

Here is the good part. All the stuff that has happened or is happening to you is OK. Even if you’re dying of cancer, it’s not something to fret about, rather it’s something to learn from. Either life is about collecting more stuff or it’s not. And believe me when I say it’s not. Life is about learning and growing everyday. Life is not about how long you live, it’s about how well you live.

This might sound odd to you but life really is about learning to accept everything just as it is: good, bad, wonderful or awful. Life really doesn’t care how you “feel” about what is occurring to you in time space history. Life is concerned about how you decide to embrace what “is”.

We all have at least two choices in every situation. We can either kick and scream and say it isn’t fair, or we can welcome everything no matter how terrible it is. Yes, welcome the love and the heartache. Yes, welcome the good and the bad with same vigor.

Is it easy? Hell no it ain’t easy. It may very well be the most challenging and difficult thing you have ever done. But that is what is great about life. Not to have all our ‘life shoes’ neatly stacked in alphabetical rows in the closet. But rather to learn to grab the shoes that fit the occasion from the proverbial closet of your mind. Find the right dancing shoes for music that is playing.

So …… get up and start dancing. Life will not wait for you to say “someday Isle” do something. Do it now while you can. As I always tell folks, “ the bus hits someone everyday, and tomorrow it could be you or me”. So c’mon out of the cocoon and live a little.

I hear the music starting ….

Thanks for following us in our lifescapades.

Peace

Captain, Charlotte and JoJo the pretty good dog