Vision

Recently, I've fallen in love the idea of making secular things holy and creating a spirituality of my own.  I personally am not a follower of any traditional religion, but rather a believer in gratitude and taking care of myself physically, mentally, and emotionally. In connecting with nature. In finding the divine in a perfectly ripe pear or a group of words magically strung together. In sitting silently at the top of a mountain or shore of a lake and allowing the world to leave me in awe. In giving myself the gift of unprocessed food. In knowing my history and mind and desires. In paying love and respect to myself and others. In compassion and giving to others when they need it most and every chance we have.

We all know how easy it is to get caught up in day to day living. To be completely consumed by work or parties or gossip is just too easy in this fast paced world. But what a beautiful way to to experience the mundane- with acceptance, love, and gratitude. Each of our lives are uniquely our own and that is so special.  

"Just imagine what it would do for your religion if you shifted your sense of the miraculous from some astounding feat of a master magician to a profound appreciation of the miracle of rain. You would be a different kind of person living a different kind of life. You wouldn't be sad from the weight of your religious obligations, but rather joyful at the beauty and holiness of the natural world. You'd be happy, open, and graceful all because of your positive, world-based spiritual vision."

Mine

"For most people, the strongest externals come down to what other people think because fitting in is the path of least resistance. But fitting in is like embracing inertia. Social acceptance is the lowest common denominator of the self- it's you as a social unit rather than you as a unique person. Find out who you really are; let fitting in be the last thing on your mind. Either it will happen or it won't, but in either case, you will be in no more doubt about yourself." -Deepak Chopra

This resonates with me so much. There are moments in life where we get caught up in options. And instead of making a move that suits our souls, we stand still, or we choose the easy path because it's comfortable, or maybe even take the back seat approach and just observe. Because the truth is that it can be scary to do things for you like meditating or journaling because what you might hear is that things aren't the way they should be. You might just hear that you are capable of more. And that whisper of hope can be crippling rather than exhilarating. It's in these moments where we must pay attention. We must use our magical human power and awareness to our benefit. 

So.. Here I am reminding myself that: 

We are capable of getting out of our comfort zones, setting aside what everybody else thinks, and realizing the true us.  I am at a crossroad of should and must and I believe I've been standing here for a bit. I know that my time is coming to make a choice and boy-oh-boy I am going to create a path that is perfectly mine. 

Back

I've been really discouraged my social media lately (this might be redundant). To me it just seems like a vehicle to portray ourselves in the perfect light. To diminish hardships and exemplify our successes- both of which are blown out of proportion. I keep wondering to myself- does this online world discourage intimacy? Can we let others in to see our faults and see our lives without the filters? Will they accept us exactly as we are and love us unconditionally?  

With the rainy summer, I've found myself spending more time online. I typically would only spend about 15 minutes a day viewing social media and recently I would venture to guess I've been spending an hour or so and holy smokes what a difference that makes. Instead of living in the moment and enjoying my surroundings and pushing myself to be better I'm engrossed with questioning who I am and where I am at. And I'm through with it because my life is better than that and when I look back in ten years I don't want to remember fear and questioning- I want to see myself flourishing. Connecting. Being honest. Loving others with my entire heart. Accepting. Encouraging. That's who I am and who I need to allow to surface. I don't need others to know it, just to do it and feel my soul as nourished rather than famished.

I am back in my writing and reading habits and it feels good. The universe has handed me some great material and I'm going to allow it to transform me yet again. The ole carefree and optimistic Taylor. I am going to move beyond the need for validation in life. Here is a vow that I am taking: I am willing to sound dumb, to be wrong, to be passionate about something that others don't perceive as cool, to express my opinion, a theory, to admit that I'm afraid, to contradict something I've said before, to apologize, to grow, to be less than perfect, and perfectly human. 

"The whole experience makes me wonder if the time we spend trying to become somebody people will love isn't wasted because the most powerful, most attractive person we can be is who we already are, an ever-changing being that is becoming and will never arrive, but has opinions about what is seen along the journey." -Donald Miller

"If honesty is the key to intimacy, it means we don't have to be perfect, and, moreover, we don't have to pretend to be perfect." -Donald Miller