We create our own reality through our decisions. “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves,” says Viktor Frankl. We are responsible for how we respond to problems and for the meaning we derive from things.
And we are not alone, we're in this together.
We share the experience of inhabiting our world with so many others. But we forget as we go about our days. Sometimes intentionally, often without a thought, we separate ourselves. Perhaps in our desire to be heard, or to be seen we overlook the power of listening and seeing for ourselves.
Everything is waiting for us, or as internationally acclaimed poet David Whyte put it, Everything is Waiting for You:
Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone. As if life
were a progressive and cunning crime
with no witness to the tiny hidden
transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice You must note
the way the soap dish enables you,
or the window latch grants you freedom.
Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.
The stairs are your mentor of things
to come, the doors have always been there
to frighten you and invite you,
and the tiny speaker in the phone
is your dream-ladder to divinity.Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into
the conversation. The kettle is singing
even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots
have left their arrogant aloofness and
seen the good in you at last. All the birds
and creatures of the world are unutterably
themselves. Everything is waiting for you.
This is also connection.
[image via Unplash]