COURAGE MONTH: DAY 22: “You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.” ― William Faulkner
We cannot move forward without letting go of past moments. This is a challenge for most addicts, because we want to hold on to what is familiar.
Our resistance not only keeps us from moving forward or growing, but it begins to become painful. There is NO pain in life. All pain is caused by our resistance to life. We judge things as either good or bad, right or wrong, nice or mean, pleasant or unpleasant.
These judgments come from the fearful ego and create stress and tension and resistance around life that causes us many hours (days, weeks, and years!) of unhappiness. What we believe about life is what we get to experience.
Letting go of these things makes us open and available to life. It is not a popular cultural belief system. We are programmed to be “safe”, which means we seek only that which is familiar. Life is going to throw the book at us with new and unfamiliar moments until we die.
I am grateful to know about this. There are many things about which we are conditioned to seek that familiar and comfortable path. We work at the same job for many years, live in the same home for many years, go to the same meetings for many years, and do what we have done (over and over) for many years.
That consistency, we believe, keeps us “safe” from things that can sneak up on us and harm us in some fashion.
Thankfully, for me, I have learned that I am equally safe with 2 or 3 or 10 jobs each year, living in a new place, sometimes 2-3 each year, moving about the state or country or city, and going to new meetings every 6 months if I need to. I am not afraid of making those changes. In fact, I find it exhilarating to meet new people in new meetings and renew myself in new surroundings often.
I love to explore and seek new adventures. This is just my nature. It has slowed down considerably since I got here, but it has not stopped. Perhaps one day I will “settle down” and stick to something that is long-term. We shall see.
I am willing to do that, in most cases. However, that is not how my life has unfolded. I allow things to unfold as they will and accept that change is exciting for me. I am never bored by much of anything in my life. When the changes are not in jobs or homes, they can always be in me and what I am doing. I constantly challenge myself to learn new things and gain new skills and explore new ideas.
Then there are people, with whom I am fascinated and always happy to meet. I get new people in my work all the time. Then in new settings there are others. This is great.
I have lost sight of the shore over and over and over again in this life. I am so happy I get to be that kind of an explorer, having new adventures and being amazed at what I did not know the moment before; again and again. Life is full and interesting and fun!
Dolphin Hug 