The NEW has GONE, the OLD has COME – The Transformation

I stand at a threshold in my life, one I know so many other people have stood at – looking back at 3 decades of life (thanks to all that have been there, even the obnoxious ones) and looking forward with my physical eyes to at least another 5  decades (Insha Allah) and with my spirit, to an eternity.

The cracks of degradation of my physical body are beginning to show (I can no longer work for 48 hours without sleep) and rather than cling to the vanishing sands of my past and youth, I must now make the decision to either embrace the winds of the future, or languish in fires of regrets of what could have been in the house of yesterday. A transformation is going on …whether I choose to accept it or not. I make the choice to accept it and intentionally make what ever adaptations I must make in other that this transformation be one that will bring me and those around me more peace, more love and more fulfillment.

Part of that transformation will be to give up the ‘glory’ of youth for that of old men, and to do this I must transform or let be transformed :

• Youthful strength into strength of character.
• Reliance on my intellect into knowing by intuition and awareness.
• Desires to make myself better into a yearning to serve others and make another life better.
• The need to take into a desire to share and give.
• Independence in for interdependence.

I know it is a journey and it won’t be easy, but it is a journey I must make – one I have chosen to make because I KNOW that it is one filled with reward … I cannot lose and there is ultimately only happiness and peace on that path.

Thus, as I thread this path of light, I pray that a life of discipline, of learning, of service, and of contribution will bear the fruits some of which I have always desired but never had: Patience | Selflessness | Spontaneity | Presence | Silence | Oneness with God.

This I wish myself, every moment …and I wish it to you too.

Move It!!! — Leave the Past Behind!!

One of my favorite quotes is from the character Vahla in the TV series Stargate SG-1. It goes thus:

“There is nothing to be gained in second-guessing yourself.
You can’t remake the past
So look to the future
Or risk being left behind”

What I take from this is that we should never let our past, no matter how sordid hold our future to ransom. Some of those habits that keep us captives of the past are regret and rumination.

So leave the past behind and also let the future be … your domain is here and now – the only domain you can DO anything about anything. Look people, between ruminating about the past and worrying about the future both of which are ultimate acts of futility, there is another way … savour the present. Stop and bask in the glory of that flower, the magnetic innocence of a child or the wonder of God’s work.