Good morning everyone!
I woke up this morning to a rather "gloomish" day out there, but what a surprise when I stepped out on my porch for the first time this morning to discover it was almost as warm out there as it was in the house!! I so love the sounds of spring, and every spring brings with it this sense of anticipated wonder, as if it were the first one I have ever experienced. I notice that the black and white backdrop of winter with all of it's silence is now bursting with sights and sounds of life...the wind blows now with purpose...to spread seed and pollen around into a myriad of eventual color and texture. The birds sing relentlessly calling out to their eventual mates and as they do their housekeeping in preparation for their young. Every element begins to take it's place in nurturing growth and promoting life. Even the air smells of new beginnings. The sounds of the snowplows are replaced by the street sweepers...everyone is just busy "preparing" for the life to come. How I love being outdoors and mingling with those things that have been here way longer than I. How I love learning from them. How I love seeing that we are all alike, ya know. I am part of all things....and they...a part of me. There is good to be seen and experienced in any season, really, but there is just something so spectacular and welcoming to life buzzing about all around you. It is comforting, I think, and reminds us that we are part of that life, that living, that rebirth, that building and growth. It reminds us that we are innately proactive creation--while winter primarily renders us act according to condition.
There is a new-born sense of freedom that spring ushers into our lives year after year. It is a time of planning, dreaming, and doing. It seems that the forces of nature work in close conjunction with our hearts, our minds, and our hands to benefit and long-lasting result, where winter can steal away our efforts in one harsh wind or one huge snowfall, and then, we are stuck repeating the same thing over and over again to no real benefit and a very short lived result...Example: Shoveling your sidewalk, washing the salt off of your vehicle. We begin in the winter to realize we are really not in control. We are, in part, being forced to be reactive, forced to wait, forced to succumb, and we find that for the most-part, we are controlled by this season. The days are shorter, we live in darkness, nature seems angry, uncooperative, and rebellious & she not only seeks to render you reactive to her whims, but at times, demands that we do.
But what about those who snowboard, ski, ice-fish, snow-mobile, carve ice sculptures, build snow architecture? Do they feel the relentless sway of winter's demands to comply or do they see the life in the "dead season?" Or what about those parents with young children, building snowmen and snow-forts? What about the mother who takes the opportunity to warm up the homestead by baking a treat? We have choices. But the signs of the seasons are there to tell us that there will be times when you can easily go-with-the-flow of nature and circumstance, and times, we may have to be a little more creative. There are times when everything seems to follow a natural path, and those times when we have to first envision one when it seems that all odds are against us. And there is a huge difference between response and reaction. Reaction is more the result of a circumstance, where a response is almost a cohesive and preventive method used in proactivity.
The ones who find something pleasurable to do in winter are responding. The ones who watch the weather and base what their day will bring because of it are reacting. Response is a result of knowing yourself and being yourself and is born of the spirit--the deep. Reaction is a result of habit, pattern, and is born of the mind--the superficial. One has the safe-code already figured out, the other is aimlessly pushing random buttons to figure it out, and even if they crack the code, they aren't really paying attention to what code indeed opened that safe--cuz, they are just pushing buttons, any buttons, any combination...to get the job done. But to what benefit...if they close that door, they AGAIN will not remember how to open it.
A proactive attitude is one of excellence, motivation, determination, risk-taking, striving for success. A reactive attitude is mediocre, getting-by, needing acceptance, and playing the role. One makes you feel good about yourself, allows you to trust in yourself, and builds a trusting and credible relationship with others..the other makes others feel good about you but leaves trust in yourself in the dust--and eventually the trust of others there too. One assists in directing your life, the other has no set direction. One is of courage, strength, and possibility...the other is of cowardice, escape, and avoidance. One is prepared, the other is waiting for the axe to drop. One has ground to stand upon, the other blows with the wind. One has ideas, the other plays off of other's ideas. And finally, one is solid and genuine, and the other is movable and an inconsistent.
There are those of us who have based our survival on seeing the forest for the trees, reading between the lines before we make a choice, and there are others who wait for instruction before they choose. One sees the cohesive nature of all things...and the other lives by a random happenstance theory where nothing is connected, no decision directly effects another, all things are separate--and therefore, meaningless.
We all have proactive and reactive propensities...and they both have a very real and important purpose to serve. However, the result of someone's success in this life will always be their choice. It is the difference between standing out and blending in. Which is more important to you? Is this life something to just "get through" or something to experience?
Our reputation, our integrity, and our destiny all hinge on the difference between these two attitudes. What will be YOUR self-fulfilled prophecy? Will it be one to embrace and be proud of...or will you blame the snow for falling upon your freshly shoveled walk and live and die with the thoughts of "all of that work for nuthin!"
It is everyone's individual choice.
Happy Spring to you all and my hope is that you will embrace the possibilities, take the risks, set your own goals, and conceive, believe, and achieve despite the circumstance, despite what others may think, say, or believe of you. At the end of the day, it is you that you have to face. If you can say and FEEL "I wouldn't have done it any other way"..."I gave it all I had"...it doesn't matter what other people say or think of you...you can only be the best you that you can be. There is no failure in putting your entire self into something when your eye is on the possibility for success. If it doesn't happen for you when you try your best, it just wasn't meant to be.
Much faith and hope I send to you all this beautiful day.
Raina
No comments:
Post a Comment