As our journey through life perpetually moves forward, we need to ask the question, are we truly progressing? For a few, progression means gaining skills, experience, education, and most importantly, UNDERSTANDING. For so many others, it means change, and they make every effort to avoid that, failing to realize that change is inevitable, whether we agree to it or not.
Fate, Change, & Time: Things we Can’t Control
It’s like fighting, kicking, and screaming as life pulls us to the end, and yes, I mean the end of life. It’s a truly fruitless effort. Whether one believes in destiny or not, we all face a harsh reality, and that is the eventual end of one’s life. Those who fight change have now stopped reading this blog, for their denial is far too great, and any amount of suggestion to change challenges their entire belief structure. If you are still reading, well done!
I often wonder if those who are averse to change base their opposition to it on their belief of heaven and hell. Do they claim to be spiritual? Those that lead morally questionable lives probably don’t align with traditional spiritual beliefs and they may, as a result, internally have many things to fear. This is probably the reason why they fight so much; they believe their fate is uncertain, like the snake trying to escape the hawk, they hold onto hope that in some magical way all will be forgotten.
Figure 1. Mother nature in its rawest form
Do I Believe?
I am often asked, if I “Believe.”
My response to that question is confidently this:
All the time!
For I have learned belief is the most powerful force on this earth!
“No” they would state “Do you believe in GOD?”
My response to such a deeply personal question is often met with uncertainty from the person asking, for it has never aligned with any other’s belief. That response is this;
I have a boss.
I have never met my boss.
I don’t even have a clue where my boss is, for the universe’s vastness is beyond my current level of understanding.
Nor do I know if my boss is a male, female, or a cat because it really doesn’t matter to me.
What I do know is my boss has given me a job, a job without any clear job description.
I can feel my job is important to my boss in a way I don’t quite understand yet.
What I also feel is it’s my responsibility to figure out what my job is.
I feel my boss knows that I will make many mistakes in the process, and he is ok with it, provided I do not intentionally hurt others and that I learn all I can from in the process.
I feel, my boss is far wiser than I am, and I feel my boss has chosen me for a reason, a reason I can not yet see.
Along the way in learning my job, I will feel the sting of many adversities, challenges, and hardships with each becoming exceedingly harder than the last.
I will also feel goodness, kindness, empathy, caring, and a small version of love although these will be sporadic at best.
I also feel, my boss has great confidence in me to do my job, although there are times, I don’t feel I hold the same confidence in myself.
I do take my job very seriously, never wanting to disappoint my boss. As such, I have no need to call my boss, pester my boss or ask my boss for help, for my boss has given me the freedom to do my job as I see fit.
For that, I hold great admiration and respect for my boss.
Besides, I feel my boss is very, very busy, having to deal with all the other people in the world, so I leave my boss alone and just do what I feel is the best way to do my job.
Of all the things I feel, one feeling stands out above all the rest!
You see, my boss gave me a gift to rely on.
A gift that will never fail me if I can learn how to use it appropriately, for it is a gift of magnificent power.
That gift is………” Feelings.” Not just basic feelings, but elevated “feelings” through an extremely sensitive nervous system that will guide me along my journey.
In the end, only my boss knows when my job is finished and when this life I was given needs to come to an end. When that time comes, I have to give my boss a report. A very detailed report about all I learned, all I experienced, and most importantly, all that I understood while trying to do my job.
Once I have completed this report and depending on whether it meets my boss’ expectations, I am either given another job, a harder job with the new skills I have learned or I need to return to do the same job over again in a different form, forgetting all I had learned the time before.
Figure 2. Life in a nutshell is one big rollercoaster of an adventure
Now, that is just my feelings for my own existence here on earth. Each of us is allowed to believe what we want; I only hope that whatever you believe it doesn’t harm others. One thing I do feel, is none of us are given the same job because each one of us is unique. Occasionally, we will encounter someone with a similar job and together we can work side by side. Sometimes part of our job will be helping others pick themselves up again and preparing them for their own unique jobs, and letting them go once they are ready.
Life, a Stairway
I recall a song by the band Led Zeppelin called “Stairway to Heaven,” which for me is a beautiful analogy of life’s journey. Life’s stairway is a steep climb at times with each and every step holding lessons we must learn. What many don’t realize is that each lesson is exceedingly more complex with each step we climb. Missing a single aspect of a lesson on that step can make a vast impact on any future steps ahead.
Many try and skip parts of the lesson, assuming they either don’t need it or they already know it just so they can quickly move to the next step. Often moving many steps ahead, they believe they are doing better than the rest. That is until they reach a step where that one small part, the part they missed ten steps ago forces them to go all the way back down to learn it, just like the game Snakes and Ladders?
Those that experience this set back, truly missed many lessons along the way, for had they spent the time required to learn all they needed to learn instead of being in such a hurry to move ahead, they would have gained the skills, knowledge, education, and again most importantly, the understanding needed to painstakingly move up that stairway at the pace that would have allowed them to give our boss the detailed report required.
Those that reach levels of the stairway without that understanding will only be sent back to try again and again and again, in a much different life than they hold now. Those that did acquire the understanding will be called home. When they are, they are rewarded by being given another job, one more advanced than the last, the choice simply will be theirs.
Those that deliberately harm others while attempting to do their jobs are seen as disruptive and in need of discipline. Our boss doesn’t do this lightly however, for struggle is part of the job and it also is part of the lessons the rest of us need to learn. When these disruptive people are no longer needed, our boss takes them back placing them in a reflection stasis, like a frog, snake, or worm.
Figure 3. A Stairway on a Mountain Top
True & False Friends along the Way
We can even be paired up with a group of people who help us or hinder us. Those who help us, we grow fond of. Some even develop a love for one another. It’s when that person we are fond of or love is recalled back home that we feel a great loss. “How can we do our job without them” runs through our minds, often believing it is impossible. That is one of the hardest steps we all must get past. For it is inevitable we all reach that step at some point in our lives.
It’s easy to think that those who were able to work with someone they loved for many years feel this loss the most. I have come to understand that it’s not time together that makes that loss difficult, it’s how much that person we worked with helped us learn. Still, there are those whom we believe we love, only to be tricked by its imposter lust. In the mesmerizing state of lust, we are fooled into thinking they were here to help us and we to help them, only to discover, they were not helpful at all. In fact, they were pushing us back down the stairs. Blinded by our feelings of lust, we didn’t realize what was happening, until they leave our lives be it called back home or they had no more use for us. This is one of life’s most painful lessons.
Some are lucky enough to recognize that these people are just cheating their way up the stairway at our expense and then we leave them, forcing ourselves to yet work alone. Sometimes that is for the best because the lessons we need to learn often need to be learned in solitude.
The Strongest of Souls are Often Sent to the Darkest of Places
I truly believe that as Highly Responsive People, we are the ones who have chosen to take on the more difficult jobs. For we are the teachers in life, and as such, our boss has given us the gift of High Responsiveness. This doesn’t mean we know how to use it the same way we did on the last job, for each job is vastly different than the last. Given patience, finding courage, and seeking out others of your kind will assist you along the way.
Figure 4. Patience, Courage, and Friends of our own kind help us HSPs on our Life Missions