brown dress with white dots
On this last day of the year I was thinking about sea glass and what an extraordinarily good metaphor it is for what we all hope for in life. When it was created and initially used, the glass had no value. It was part of a greenish Coke bottle, a brown wine bottle, olive oil, or a blue drinking glass. Nothing of importance. Use up the contents and throw the bottle away. Somehow or other the glass broke and its pieces were scattered. This one ends up in the ocean. For a long time, maybe even years, it lives there being tossed and tumbled, roiled here and there by the whims of the sea. It’s not a good life, but it manages to keep intact. All the time it’s in there however, its sharp edges are being worn away by the water’s constant movement. The violence of storms, the bleaching sun, saltwater… all these things transform it. Eventually it gets washed up on a beach somewhere. It is the same glass it once was but also something new. Not entirely but almost. The color has been burned away by the sun and the acid sea, making the glass more translucent, ethereal, and lovely. It has no more edges. But without them it has taken on a shape, a form, that is often singular and truly one of a kind. Sooner or later someone comes by and notices it. They are immediately attracted. They love it for what it has become. Often they take it home and in some cases, even turn it into a piece of jewelry or something else valuable. Something to treasure.
Jonathan Carroll

(Source: facebook.com)

I was reading an issue of MEN’S JOURNAL magazine. The lead article was “100 Things To Do Before You Die.” On the list were things like climb Mt. Everest, parachute from a plane, hand feed a shark, etcetera. I skimmed the other things they suggested should be on everyone’s list. I had no desire to do even one of them. Then I thought is there anything I *would* like to do before I die that I haven’t done yet? Hypothetically if someone is living fully, they’re doing what matters (or is important) to them whenever and however they can. There’s something dubious, even pathetic about having to make lists of tasks to do before you die so in doing them, you can be sure you will have really “lived.” The Japanese say “live every day as if your hair was on fire” and within realistic bounds, that sounds about right. Most of the time we know almost as soon as a situation arises whether we will regret not doing it afterwards or not if we say no. We also know most of the time that despite our many fearful, well behaved inner voices telling us not to do something, that we should ignore those voices and go ahead and do it. Because when we do and it works, it makes us bigger and life richer. If it fails, we hurt for a while but then heal and move on. You don’t need to climb Mt. Everest to have led a fulfilled life. You only have to have the courage, and usually it is only small courage, to say yes. Say yes and do something when your first, second and third instincts may be to say no because that frightens me.
Jonathan Carroll

(Source: facebook.com)

« Previous   49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58   Next »
clear theme by parti
powered by tumblr