A Meditation

Life demands so much from each of us each and every day. It doesn’t matter whether we are doing what we love to do or have found ourselves in circumstances we hate. We still have to face each day, look fear and uncertainty in the eye, and move forward. If we don’t we can not claim to be truly alive. Our path is seldom crystal clear, even when we  have an inkling of direction. The water is just murky enough to give us pause.

It doesn’t matter whether we are someone who forges ahead with gusto or a person who plods along, agonizing over each step we take. The course is the same. We must make decisions and choices.  Simple, complex, insignificant, monumental choices. Each decision piled one upon of the other, chosen or not chosen, determines who we have been, who we are and who we will be. Our lives are the sum total of our choices, for better or worse.

Most of the time there are no clear, obvious right or wrong decisions and actions, just many shades of gray that we feel as though we are squinting to discern. Perhaps if we chose to give up squinting and trying to “see the answer” clearly, and instead, closed our eyes completely, we might be able to hear the voice of our hearts. That is where our answers lie. Not in someone else’s opinion or even an expert’s advice. No, our truth, our direction can come only from the quiet voice that we too often bury in the noise of externals. Truth speaks more often in feelings and nuances than bold statements. It requires us to be utterly still and to listen.

In stillness alone can we will find the essential meaning of our lives and our purpose for being. It is their we will find the best answer when we face a decision.  It may take traveling through a layer of pain and disappointment and the debris left by lost hope and shattered dreams, but beneath….beneath, is where our answers lie.