the wind moves,,, a vast, invisible river around you, in quiet conversation with everything it touches.
you look up and out from the mountain ridge you stand on, muscles tired from the long climb. you pause, in a rare moment of stillness, breathing in the view of the valley spreading out before you.
this is a vital crossroads in your journey. somehow, you know everything could change,
today.
you crouch down to the ground beneath you, fingers sinking into a soil that has never known your touch. you lift your hand, palm open and filled with fresh, dark earth.
dirt, you could call it, and you'd be right. but more and more lately, being 'right' hasn't been enough for you. you've been through a lot, pushed yourself and sacrificed for successes that never quite live up to their promise - trading precious years of your life for sparklers that entertain, then quickly fade.
your eyes move across the valley,,, in your heart, you believe there must be somewhere you can go to find what you're looking for. that's why you made the climb here, today.
but there are so very many different directions you could choose. how does a person know which direction to pick from among so many? and what if you choose the wrong one? how far will you have to travel to get there, and what challenges might you face? what if, in the end, it's all for nothing?
you close your eyes, releasing your hold on the building weight of frustration before it threatens to overwhelm you. as quiet returns to the mind, you are surprised to hear a still, small voice,,,
nothing is only one thing. everything changes depending upon how you see it. an excited intake of breath, as powerful realization blooms in your mind:
*
the choices we see as available to us are defined by our vision -
what we see, and
the way we see it. and how many different ways are there to view any given circumstance? potentially, of course, there an infinite number.
what we choose to see, our focus, literally becomes the raw building blocks we use to construct the menu of choices we see as potentials in any given situation. as we look at something a different way, different ways of interacting with it open up to us - a changeable, fluid vision directly translates to a richer variety of choice, and therefore, possibility.
in other words,,, because our lives are shaped by the choices we make, and our choices are shaped by our vision, our lives become defined by the boundaries of what we see as possible.
the richest gift of life, then, isn't in choosing from the paths that lay before you.
it's in your ability to make your own paths.
*
your eyes return to your hand, and you look,
again.
yes, you could call this dirt, but as soon as you do, your interest fades, its usefulness clearly diminished. what good is 'dirt'? but what if you could look at this 'dirt' and see something else?
what if instead, you saw a garden bed for the most delicious of fruit? or the birthplace of a tree that will someday grow to father the most majestic forest ever seen? or a piece of a sculpture of such beauty it will move those who see it to tears? or the source of a valuable mineral never before discovered? or the foundation stone for a family's home or a school that will become a haven for the sharing of wisdom for generations to come?
it reminds you of a story you once heard about a man who, while walking in a desert one day, was all of a sudden told he was standing on 'holy ground'. how many times have you been walking on holy ground, and not even known it?
the greatest, the most beautiful, the precious,,, each of these exist potentially within every single circumstance, every single piece of this vast universe - waiting only for your vision to unlock them, for your gift of expression to draw them out, to tell their story,,, to tell your own.
you came up to the mountain for a better view of the world below, and you laugh as you realize you found one,,, but the mountain had nothing to do with it.
the better view? it's always existed
here, inside of you.
