"If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced." - Vincent Van Gogh

Friday, December 14, 2012

On Becoming a Butterfly

Are you destined for greater things? Are you living up to your full potential? Do you feel like you were born to soar but you are only crawling around on your belly? Are there areas of discontent in your life that you just don't want to look at or deal with because a change would be far too painful for you?

I think if we are honest, we all have areas like this. We tend to excel in one or two areas while the other parts of our lives fall behind. It's kind of the ebb and flow of life... but is it something that we should be satisfied with?

There is a tension between living your fullest and being content with your situation. If one is TOO content, they will not want to move forward. However, if one is ALWAYS striving for the unreachable, life becomes a big project and true joy becomes elusive.

Sometimes there comes a stirring in our lives to move forward and press ahead to a new goal. It comes in the form of discontent. We can do one of two things during those times. We can either squash those feelings, shaming ourselves for our lack of spirituality and possibly reaching for one of our vices such as food, alcohol, shopping or whatever or we can recognize it as our soul crying out for change.

It is alright to feel discontent at times. Being content to take a lower pay check when you deserve more is "underachievement". Being content with a B when you are smart enough to get A's is setting your sights too low and not an admirable quality.

Discontent should stir you into action. If you are unhappy with your body... change it. If you are miserable in your marriage, work on it or get out. If you don't like your job.... move on. If you need more education to reach your dreams, attend school. There are so many things that we can do to move forward and fly.

At times we are trapped in our circumstances and financial constraints. Our lives can get caught in a gridlock where we can't move forward. At those times it helps just to start working on one little area where there might be some wiggle room. If you can get that little stick moving, it may loosen things up for some other changes in your life to follow.

Life is too short to crawl on your belly when you should be flying!


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