We're not here to dream and plan towards escape to a better place, but rather to use our time here contributing to a better place right where we are.
What will you do today?
I have done many studies in personal development, spirituality and healing and in the course of these, I have been deeply touched by the significant number of people who feel they somehow don't measure up. Or that their lives in some way are not 'good enough'.
Some of these individuals spend their lives in anger and regret, believing the world to be an evil and ugly place. Others decline opportunities for change in the belief that if they wait there will be a reward for their suffering in the great beyond or they may choose to withdraw from society waiting for a time when the world might become a different, somehow better place.
Whatever else there may be - the one thing we can be sure of, is this one life in this one place - everything else is up for discussion and awaits discovery.
With this in mind I have worked very hard at developing my ability to live in the moment - and I can assure you this hasn't always been easy. I am undeniably a part of the society that I was born into, a divisive society that encouraged class, race, religious and gender separatism. But I can choose to learn and grow beyond this. In fact for those seeking a meaning to life - perhaps that is just it: to learn and grow beyond that which we inherit and each do our little bit towards the wondrous evolutionary dance of humanity.
We can find examples of cruelty all around us - we all know this. If we choose to seek out sadness, fear and anger we will find it. The tragedy is that so many of us see only these aspects of our world.
And yet there is so much beauty to be found, so much love and compassion, so much kindness. All we have to do is remember to look for the goodness in others, the beauty of nature, the love and compassion that is far more abundant than our news reports would lead us to believe.
Opening our hearts and minds to the kindness, generosity and diversity of humanity is not a soft romantic view of life. It is merely the other side of the coin. Focusing on the positive will create a society in which we can truly begin to tackle the negative aspects of our existence far more than simply wallowing in the negative and waiting for some miracle to remove us from it.
A society that recognises it's oneness, will govern itself and the need for the power seekers will diminish. A society that is duped into believing that this life is a temporary blip in some eternal plan can be hoodwinked into wasting this great gift of life on earth.
Don't misunderstand my message I have no idea whether we are part of some eternal plan. But if we are I cannot believe that such an incredibly complex creation as our earth is meant as some sort of waiting room. Whether we were directed here, or came to be here by accident - here we are - so surely we should take every opportunity to make the most of who we are and where we are. The angle of our noses, the size of our hips, the balance in our bank accounts are of no real consequence. It is what we do with the life and the circumstances we find ourselves in that matters.
We can choose to make small changes in our own consciousness, we can choose to look for the good in life instead of the bad. In this way we deny the defeatism that has crushed so many lives, and continues to do so. When we choose to take back control of our own thought processes our experience of life becomes a choice - to focus on the difficult or the wondrous. If you truly look at your life you will be able to find both.
I cannot say I have a lived a life without challenges and I too, could choose to be defeatist and look forward to my 'next life' or the 'afterlife'.
Or I could choose to enjoy this life in all it's intricacies each day..
We all have this choice, every single day - what will yours be today?
Tracy Palazzo-Barnes