Consider for a minute all the cycles and seasons in our lives. I think I take for granted that all people see the cycles and seasons of life, but I am learning that I am wrong. Not everyone rises above their existence to see the grand scheme of things, the bigger picture, the “circle of life” as it were.
And why not? Why do people choose not to see the changes around them? King Solomon said there is nothing new under the sun. He was right, of course, and you’d think that humanity would want to put that to the test. There are plenty of things I have read and tested out to see if it was true. And, lots of them have been true, in fact, most have been true. So, what keeps people from appreciating this?
Maybe fear? Afraid of what the bigger picture would show? Fear of the unknown or not knowing what to do with their new found knowledge?
Perhaps a need to ‘fly under the radar’? We all know that has never worked out well for me, so I’m not even sure what that means. I just sort of downshift and mow right through the middle of said radar and “ta-da! I’m here on the other side!”
Maybe the fog of grief? Crippling mental illness? Disease? I’m unsure how any of these would cause someone to stay so shut off from the bigger picture of the world so as not to at least have a desire to think bigger. I always think we are meant for more than the rat race of every day. We are built for better than we become.
I think we choose comfort over happiness many times.
I think, like Terah (Abraham’s dad), we get tired of traveling because we experience so much loss, so we just stop and settle. What if, though….
What if you had kept going when it was hard? How would you feel if you could see where your life could’ve gone but didn’t because you got comfortable? Where would you go if you weren’t afraid? Who would you be if someone hadn’t set expectations on you early in life?
2024 is upon us. We are on the tail end of years of fear of each other. Years of looking at each other to purposely see differences. I challenge each of you reading this: seek likenesses and commonality in the most unlikely places and see how your worldview changes. Appreciate differences, see color and start from love and then… see where you go. You may end up somewhere being someone you love more than you do now and living a life you always dreamed of but didn’t know was possible.
This new year may be the beginning of a new cycle for you. A different season that looks similar but ends up differently because you make different decisions. Perhaps, just maybe, we don’t need to seek normal. We need to seek becoming.
Dreaming in Paisley 