what if everyday we felt like we were exactly where we were supposed to be? what would life be like then? but, we don’t think that way… or at least i don’t. i haven’t. on happy, sunny, exciting days i felt like i was exactly where i should be in life – where i lived, where i worked, everything. but on gray, ordinary days i began to wonder if i was doing the best i could where i was, or was there something else out there for me? was i meant for more? i struggled with the thought of being called to something greater and being called to hunker down exactly where i was. i didn’t exactly know where i needed to be. where i could best be used.
but, in the midst of constantly questioning myself, and feeling restless one minute and completely content another, i worked hard to be still enough to hear my soul speak to me. the truth that i heard was that it actually didn’t matter where i was. but, it did matter who i was. was i true to myself? did i allow my greatest talents & gifts to be used? did i follow those dreams that tugged at my soul for years? was i willing to be pulled out of my comfort zone? could i trust the bigger picture?
you see, i believe that there is a bigger picture. and it’s something we can’t see until we are able to look back. those days in the past that i was yearning for something more, feeling restless and bored, were necessary days. and they all make sense, when i look back from where i am now. looking back, everything ordinary becomes extraordinary. looking back i begin to trust the bigger picture and that puts a whole new perspective on how i see my todays, wherever i am. each day is filled with endless possibilities. each day is filled with mysteries and opportunities – and we usually do not understand the mysteries and fail to see the opportunities. but it’s much more simple than we make it out to be.
there is a young woman i know (but not very well) who has said to me that she feels that if she has not learned anything or if anything has not happened, then the day has been meaningless. i think we all get stuck in these thoughts at times. but, who defines what “something happening” is or what is something that is learned. couldn’t it be true that simply having a conversation with someone could be seen as something important that happened? what if that conversation was just a basic, everyday conversation for you, but that conversation meant everything to the other person? we’re always looking for these grand, exotic, over-the-top things to happen, when it’s really much more simple.
so, where we are. today. we may not understand in the moment, but it is exactly where we are meant to be, if we choose to see it that way. we can make a difference right where we are, in the middle of our ordinary lives. all we have to do is open our eyes and look around. all we have to do is open our hearts and live with openness & love.
“stay where you are. find your own Calcutta. find the sick, the suffering and the lonely right there where you are — in your own homes and in your own families, in your workplaces and in your schools. … you can find calcutta all over the world, if you have the eyes to see. everywhere, wherever you go, you find people who are unwanted, unloved, uncared for, just rejected by society — completely forgotten, completely left alone” ~ Mother Teresa
peace. today and always.
Yes, that’s a good attitude. It’s funny how your friend says she wants to learn something every day. For me my day is made when something extraordinary happens, something that catapults me back to New York, something that can only happen here in the way it does. This lunch I sat next to these two teenage girls who were filming an independent movie on the steps of the Post Office in Midtown. Sometimes I see how people interact in public and it makes me smile because this is only the way it can be here…