You never find yourself until you face the truth. – Pearl Bailey
Every now and then we feel a nudge somewhere deep inside and close to our souls. We feel the emptiness and the panic when the realization hits us that something is missing – but we don’t know what it is, or when it may have disappeared or if we had it in the first place. We may not even know it’s missing until we are teased with a glimpse of its existence.
Sometimes the most difficult thing to endure is realizing what we want does indeed exist; we just can’t get to it, or have it right now.
The longing, the missing, of something can be painful. However, pain can tells us something. Pain can serve as a compass to point us in new directions and new opportunities. Pain can motivate us to understand the purpose of why something is missing. Our pain can help us find the missing piece.
In our moments of quiet desperation we push stuff down into the holes hoping to fill them up. We drink one beer too many, we eat when we are not hungry or we refuse to eat when we are hungry. We exercise too much or we pray even when we are not feeling particularly spiritual.
We refuse to show our pain to the world and we self-medicate hoping to find relief. We wear our fear like a blanket. But when the last drink is sipped or the final bite is swallowed we are still hiding in plain sight and wrapped tightly in our shame of not being able to find the missing piece.
While it’s true we just can’t have it all, somewhere along the way we were lead to believe we should. There’s no question love, money, personal relationships and success are all important. But reality suggests these things will always ebb and flow. By setting realistic expectations we are better able to reconcile the gaps when they do occur.
Perhaps what’s missing is only dormant for a while. Perhaps when something is removed from our life it’s so we can focus on another area. Remember this: Never get too excited with the high, highs in your life or too devastated with the low, lows. Instead, aim for someplace in between – a balance of the two.
Life is a process and its lessons are taught to us each day. It may be that what we want is removed for a while so we can concentrate on something else – something that will provide better answers.
Sometimes the less you try to find the source of what you are missing, the closer you become to finding the answer. At the end of the day you are here; you are a person of tremendous value and worth; and you are not missing.
Focus on nurturing you soul. Respond to the nudge by acknowledging its existence, but stay grounded with what you are doing and stay within your heart. The missing piece will fall into place naturally. When it does, you will know its truth by how it fits.
“I don’t have pet peeves, I have whole kennels of irritation.” – Whoopie Goldberg
Sometimes it’s the little things that can irritate us the most. We go to pour our coffee in the morning only to find there are no clean cups, the slowest driver on the face on the planet is just ahead of us travelling in the left lane – under the speed limit, or we take our seat on a crowded airplane only to have someone with a bag of smelly fast food sit down right next to us.
These irritations, or pet peeves, may seem minor at first but can lead to more significant stress in our lives. There are ways to cope, and perhaps eliminate these pet peeves, before they develop into something more serious, more stressful, and more harmful. Read more
We spend too much time living in the what if and need to learn to live in the what is. – Rev. Leroy Allison
I don’t want to leave anything on the field. On my last day, I want to be carried off with my chin strap still tightly fastened. I don’t want to come off the field knowing I didn’t live my life to the fullest. I want to leave the field lifting my eyes to where my spirit is heading next; not looking back in regret. I want to leave the field without any terms or conditions placed on my soul.
Living with conditions is the best way to cheat ourselves out of the life we deserve. Conditions tell us how we should live rather than living from our hearts. When we stop to listen, our hearts will remind us we are free to live our lives any way we choose. Read more
We should count each day as a separate life. – Seneca
Article written by Alex Blackwell. Connect with me on Facebook.
My friend Tim Brownson at A Daring Adventure once published an article providing seven reasons to be cheerful in spite of your circumstances.
On the particular day Tim wrote this article, he was experiencing the ultimate bad mood creator – transitioning all of his computer files from his old Windows-based computer to his brand spanking new Macintosh computer. Even though Tim is a very bright and capable guy, this exercise proved to be, shall we say, challenging for him.
At the moment of his greatest frustration, he happened to hear his wife break out in what Tim describes as “raucous” laughter. He followed the sound and found his wife watching the movie Hitch with Will Smith.
Soon, Tim found himself smiling and laughing along with his wife. In just a few short moments, his bad day had turned around and corrected itself. To be honest though, it was really Tim who made the adjustment, not the day at all. My friend just found a very good reason to reframe his bad day and then look at it from a different point of view.
All of us have this same ability, too. There exists in each one us the energy needed to reverse the negative circumstances we face in our daily lives and make them either more positive or adjust them. We also have the choice to accept the negatives, but then choose not to allow them to have any power over us. Read more
Life isn’t about how to survive the storm, but how to dance in the rain. – Author Unknown
Article written by Alex Blackwell. Connect with me on Facebook.
Kansas City is in a drought. There has only been 0.05” of precipitation recorded this year. My hands and face are as dry and cracked as the hard winter ground. It’s rare to go so long without any type of moisture during the middle of winter in the Midwest.
There has been no snow, sleet or ice. There has been no rain. I have almost forgotten what it sounds like to hear the drops fall against the window. I need the rain to come back. I need it to wash away the harshness of the past few months and heal my fragile confidence.
Most of us have experienced periods in our lives of pronounced difficulty and pain. These cycles can last for days or weeks. Sometimes they can last for months or even longer. When we find ourselves in one of these droughts we tend to lose our objectively and begin to believe the hardship will never end. The last six months has been one of these times for me. Read more
