don
Miguel Ruiz once said, "You know the word 'Toltec' means artist. When I
talk about Toltec, I’m really talking about the entire humanity, because we all
are artists. Even if we don’t have the awareness, we’re always creating. The
biggest art that we humans create is a story – the story of ourselves, the
story of our life. It looks so real, and we live in that story... We give a meaning to every single word that
we use. We give our personal power to knowledge... and knowledge creates a
massive piece also, which is the main character of our story. Which means it
creates us, what believe we are..."
So what story are we creating about our lives and ourselves? How many of us think we have a clear handle on our storyline and the way it is going to unfold? That is until something unexpected happens and we have to reexamine how we have cast others and ourselves in the story of our life. For example, I thought I was comfortable in the role I have created for myself the last several years since beginning to use a wheelchair. It was modified slightly when I lost my paratransit services, but overall the story of me as a spiritual partner, teacher, writer, on a mission to radiate love in this world was pretty well defined. Each chapter in my book of life had been edited, revised, and tweaked until I was pleased with how I was telling my story and its overall contribution to my life story. Sunday morning, began a new chapter, which prompted me to begin a new chapter in my book about me and the rebuilding of my body with love and joy. What prompted this was the demise of my wheelchair. Not having the money for the copay for a new wheelchair, I have had to choose other options for my life. So after pressing through the initial wave of fear, I decided that my main character (me) going to move in a new direction, giving thanks for the pain in the muscles and joints, drawing on all the healing modalities I have access to as I recreate me in a new relationship with my body.
Whether we are aware of our artistic abilities or not, as don Miguel Ruiz said, we are creating the story of our lives. So if you do not like the direction your life is going; then revises it. We cannot grow and evolve in our life journey unless we move beyond our own comfort zones. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow." The only one who limits our potential is us. As Arthur C. Clarke once said, “The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.” Once we remove the limitations we have placed on our own abilities, we can begin to unlock the potential in which we can create the story of our life.
It seems like sometimes we keep our life story from going places out of fear of what might or might not happen. Babe Ruth said it well, “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” If we are not willing to take risks in our lives, then we are also saying we are not willing to receive the rewards in our lives. So why would we not want to create a life for ourselves filled with rewards? Which brings us back to the original question, what kind of story are we creating?