Thursday, January 15, 2015

You Are Where You Are Meant To Be

You make what seems to be a simple choice:  Choose a man or a job or a neighborhood…and what you have chosen is not a man or a job or a neighborhood, but a life.
-Writer Jessamyn West
 
This quote reminds me of another quote attributed to John Lennon that goes, “Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans”.  I have written before about dreams not realized, lives that seem more accidental than planned, and how many of our days are simply ordinary.  Some would say these points of view represent a negative attitude about life.  Let’s look at life from a different point of view and one that I truly believe is true.  Let’s accept that our lives have turned out exactly the way they should and that we are exactly where we are supposed to be.  I truly believe this is true even when it doesn’t seem logical.  Many of you know that as a young man I lived in a monastery and I thought I would be a monk for the rest of my life.  It was a romantic ideal for me that I would live in a beautiful place, that I would walk on air, and that I would be in a blissful aura of sanctity for all eternity.  Obviously that didn’t happen.  If I had stayed in the monastery, blissful or not, none of you would be reading these thoughts because I would not be here to write them.  In addition, my wife would be married to another man, my children would not exist, my beloved granddaughter, Chloe, would also not exist and who knows what great things they may all do in their futures.  It is easy to think our lives do not make a difference but they do.  Your life has more value than you probably realize.  You affect the lives of others in ways you may never realize.  The lives we have now are where we are supposed to be today and today is all we have.   

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Thank you Michael. Your sister forwarded your blog link. I'm looking forward to seeing your posts, and I am also sharing with others on Tsu.co. Let me know if you would like an invite, I am enjoying it immensely. There are many like minded people there ~
Suzanne Elise Martin

Michael Brown said...

Thank you, Suzanne. Yes, please send me an invite to Tsu.co.

Peace!

Michael