No man remains quite what he was when he recognizes himself.
Thomas Mann
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Hello George
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Some people may reach the moment of self understanding with one big bang of realization, but I doubt it. To understand ourselves, as important as it is, requires steps, slips and recoveries, falls and rises, failures and successes. It is important to accept ourselves for who we are, but acquiescence is a crime against our essential being.
On my Face book page yesterday Anne Allen has written "Take another step.....no matter how small, just keep moving!" I often say What's the next step in life? It's the one right in front of you. My motto in life is "Never give up" because I know there are a thousand things out there to depress, discourage defeat, deflect, delay, obstruct, block, fool and destroy us. That's why we need a thousand and one things to deploy to defend the honor of our survival.
I wrote recently about the young actress who announced that she knew what her limitations were. I told her she had no limitations except the ones she is willing to impose on herself. It is more accurate to say there are limitations she allows to be imposed on her..
The gracious thing about growing and getting life experiences is that we are allowed to acept ourselves as we are at any time but learn that we will change and present a newer version of ourselves to understand and approve of.
Patience is an important thing among the thousand and one. Being patient with ourselves is a part of the approval process. The growth of a few inches may take a long time but the growth of a year may happen in an instant.
Of all the things you will experience your life is the most interesting. Even someone who selflessly dedicates their lives to feeding the hungry and healing the hurt is taking the step by step journey to the destination of recognizing who they really are.
I'm grateful to be on that journey. Make the journey, take the next step "no matter how small" and don't be surprised if you come out being someone you didn't recognize.
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Dana Bate
Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
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1 comment:
It was a comfort and inspiration to read this, since I'm going through some extremely difficult times in my personal life (which I seldom write about in my blog).
I very often have to force my feet to take the steps.....
By the way, I met Anne Allen about two years ago. She's a caring and wonderful lady.
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