Privileged with Time (to Write)

Photo by Lydia Bear Ishmael

“We should never allow our fears or the expectations of others to set the frontiers of our destiny.” –John O’ Donahue’ from Anam Cara

Each morning I use passages from favored books to inspire my meditation practice and to direct my attention throughout the day. This following passage is a great read and reminder to help us in this New Year, taken from John O’donahue’s Anam Cara:

One of the Greatest Sins is the Unlived Life  

In the Western tradition we were taught many things about the nature of negativity and the nature of sin, but we were never told that one of the greatest sins is the unlived life. We are sent into the world to live to the full everything that awakens within us and every thing the comes towards us.  It is a lonely experience to be at the deathbed of someone who is full of regret; to hear him say how he would love another year to do the things his heart had always dreamed of but believed he could never do until he retired. He had always postponed the dream of his heart. There are many people who do not live the lives they desire. Many of the things that hold them back from inhabiting their destiny are false. These are only images in their minds. They are not real barriers at all. We should never allow our fears or the expectations of others to set the frontiers of our destiny.

We are privileged to still have time. We have but the one life and it is a shame to limit it by fear and false barriers. Irenaeus, a wonderful philosopher and theologian in the second century, said, “The glory of God is the human person fully alive.” It is lovely to imagine that real divinity is the presence in which all beauty, unity, creativity, darkness and negativity are harmonized.  The divine has such passionate creativity and instinct for the fully inhabited life. If you allow your nature to come alive, then everything will come into rhythm. If you live the life you love, you will receive shelter and blessings. Sometime the great famine of blessing in and around us derives from the fact that we are not living the life we love, rather we are living the life that is expected of us. We have fallen out of the rhythm with the secret signature and light of our own nature.

The shape of each soul is different. There is a secret destiny of each person. When you endeavor to repeat what others have done or force yourself into a preset mould, you betray your individuality.  We need to return to the solitude within, to find again the dream that lies at the hearth of the soul. We need to feel the dream with the wonder child approaching a threshold of discovery. When we rediscover our childlike nature, we enter into a world of gentle possibility. Consequently, we will find ourselves more frequently at the place of ease, delight and celebration. The false burdens fall away. We come into the rhythm with ourselves. Our clay shape gradually learns to walk beautifully on this magnificent earth.

Dear Writerly Tribe,  May you follow the call of your soul to write on!  Your grateful writing sherpa,  Julie

For upcoming events please visit my website: www.julietallardjohnson.com