quote of the day

[topaz]

Spotted in a friend's journal:

We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.

--Joseph Campbell

Oof. Yeah.

Comments

[boutell.livejournal.com]

Double yeah.

[hawkegirl.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[jacflash.livejournal.com]

Yep.

I've been doing a lot of work lately around trying to accept life as it is. I'm gradually getting to a place where I feel that the things that happen to and unfold around me are the things that are supposed to be happening and unfolding, and that being worried/upset/stressed over things is just a waste of energy (and maybe a denial of reality, too). This is, after all, the life I signed up for, and I should get to living it and to learning the things I came to learn.

Hard stuff, but there it is.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

I hear you. I'm trying too. Not doing as well, but trying. :-)

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Definitely. I try very hard to have the life that is waiting for me without actually just being lazy... hard to balance.

[jacflash.livejournal.com]

*smiles at the idea of ever-industrious Molly trying to be lazy*

Maybe being lazy isn't part of your life as it's supposed to be? :-)

Perhaps the act of accepting life as it is includes accepting the urge to move yourself forward. After all, the forces that move and shape you are, whether external or internal, part of the drama, no?

[spunkywulf.livejournal.com]

brilliant

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Oh, trust me, I laze. I so laze. The only reason I'm writing my thesis now, for example, is because I never wrote it six years ago. Six years! Also, I am skilled at lying on couches and trying to wheedle dilletante into bringing me things from the next room.

On the other hand, I decided at some point that I was doing something wrong if I wasn't constantly moving forward and changing some aspect of something about my life (without having, you know, reached enlightenment or ascended to godhood). My method for not letting this trap me into thinking I need to be following A Big Plan is to never plan things out more than one move at a time: my motion forward is nearly always the result of whimsy, or at least whims.

[bethr.livejournal.com]

*stab stab*

Thanks.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

Whimsy! That's one of the things I need to remember. I need to make sure there is whimsy in my life.

It feels strange that it's something I should have to remember, since it's always come so naturally to me.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

Yah. But maybe the most important truths are the painful ones, eh?

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

...says the man with the neon alien on his backpack.

[harimad.livejournal.com]

How does one know which life is waiting? How does one distinguish between what was meant to be, and laziness? (This is already starting to sound like a discussion of free will vs. fate.)

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

What I think the quote means -- at any rate, what it means to me -- is that "the life that is waiting" is the one that you're in, right here, right now. As opposed to "the life that is planned," which is somewhere over the horizon, or may even feel just within reach and yet somehow eludes you every time you think you're there.

[jacflash.livejournal.com]

The life that was waiting is the one you're having, whether you're feeling lazy or not today. The question is, do you want to engage it mindfully or spend your time making other plans?

[keyne.livejournal.com]

I think I need to tease you unmercifully about the fact that you missed this when it was my signature quote :)

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

Oh, tease away. I think that timing made a big difference. This issue has been on my mind a lot lately, probably much more than when it was in your .signature.

[jasra]

Very good quote. Thanks for posting it.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

"The devil laughs when we make plans."

[lcohen]

i read that where i assume you read it and went oh my god, story of this year. i mean a year ago, i saw almost none of this.