Yesterday I talked briefly about seasons of our lives. It’s because lately that quote (the one you must all be sick of by now) “life is not about waiting for the storm to pass it’s about learning to dance in the rain” has been on my mind. Everyday my day dreams and thoughts leading back to this one quote. That I want to love my life, in fact I want to be in love with my life and all the possibilities and adventures. Everyone has met someone like this and as well as it being amazing and inspirational everyone no doubt is struck with the same envy that they wish they could live their life in such a passionate way. I want to constantly be excited about the opportunities available to me. I want to be passionate about living this life. I don’t want to be moaning or whining about things that in the big picture are completely irrelevant.
And I’ve been getting better at it. I mean take the other day for example. My bus was late, so I was late, then it started to rain….I didn’t have an umbrella. I feel asleep on the bus and when I woke up (just in time for my stop) I was exhausted, no motivation to dash home before school (unfortunatly was necessary as all I had in my bag was pjamas…not help for holocaust theology lesson I felt). So I dashed home and I had 5 minutes to get everything. Ran back out….and on the way a speeding car promptly splashed me….I don’t mean a little splash. I mean a full on Hollywood movie comical wave of water that soaked me. Now all of this on a normal day would leave me miserable, nay in a very foul mood and everyone would feel the brunt of it. But on this day I was determined to not let it ruin my good mood. I wish I could say I can do the same everyday…but I cant….but I am working on it.
Because I’m chasing this ideal, not having a perfect life but choosing to accept and ignore the imperfections and be happy anyway. Because I’ve realized there will always be reasons to be stressed and to wish away the next hour, week, year.
And lately I’ve felt unusually enthusiastic about this challenge, this chase of the ideal. I realized that in hindsight my life can really be divided into seasons, comprising of ones I never wish to repeat and ones I wish I could replay over and over and all the ones in-between those. Looking at my own life as I said the last few months were a season of change, ridding myself of the old and so many new exciting things. And in the moment it was all exciting and scary, but the good kind the scary, butterflies in your stomach kind. But it left me exhausted, all the projects, the new opportunities left me flat out breathless, like finishing a marathon, I was stunned and in disbelief and utterly 100% shattered. And so now I am in a new season, one of growth of working through those changes, because amidst all that excitement I lost me for a while, and this season as hectic as it is in its own way is time for me to get back to me, find myself amidst the stress of life before it undoubtedly all changes again! And you know what I want to embrace that. I want to look at this season and say I know this is only a season, only a short period of my life so I will go for it 100% throw myself head first, with reckless disabandone into it, and just absolutely go for it. What do I stand to lose my living my life this enthusiastically!?
Whenever I meet someone like this I am filled with admiration, appreciation and envy all at once!
I am embracing the season I am in, embracing my life for the wonderful beautiful mess that it is. And therefore I think I am that bit close to living a life full of passion just for life.
“Here’s what it is: Being passionate means living a life that is purposeful, allowing your heart and life to be guided by things that are meaningful and invested in things that are good. It means having goals, believing in dreams and holding on to your values. It means being defined and propelled by justice, mercy, forgiveness, charity and grace. It means striving for healing in your own life and in the world around you.”
AMEN to that!
As I said yesterday not only do we strive to confront the injustice in the world we also aim to heal ourselves, to “heal the tree so the fruit will change”.
All summed up by this paragraph by one of my favourite Bloggers, Stephanie May from the Lipstick Gospel….I read it a couple of years ago and my knee jerk reaction was What!? No it is not…..but yet it is….all of our lives are.
“The life you’ve been waiting for is happening all around you. This is it. This is life in all its glory, swirling and unfolding around us, disguised as pedantic, pedestrian non-events. But pull off the mask, and you will find your life, waiting to be made, chosen, woven, crafted. Your life, right now, is exploding with energy and power and detail and dimension, better than the best movie you have ever seen. You and your family and your friends and your house and your dinner table and your garage have all the makings of a life of epic proportions, a story for the ages, because they all are. Every life is.”
What season of your life are you in? But a better question is are you embracing it? Do you want to? Don’t let the day run you down, run the day.
ANDYS BEAT! 