I ran across this Cherokee expression: “When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice.” I know that this kind of life is possible and it unfolds one choice at a time, as does any kind of life. When my choices are aligned with my highest vision, my deepest values and my heart’s desires, I can not only rejoice when I die (assuming one can rejoice at that point) but all along the way as well. And those choices begin with what I choose to focus on moment by moment.
Eckhart Tolle wrote, “What the future holds depends on our state of consciousness now.” Knowing that my life plays out according to the thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and beliefs I choose to place and hold in the center ring of my awareness, why is it that I still make stinky choices as the ringmaster? Why wouldn’t I always choose to give the center ring to what I want to be, do and have and how I want to show up in life? Why wouldn’t I always choose to focus on love, joy, peace, compassion, abundance, service, oneness and wholeness?
Well, at this point in my life the only answer to those questions that truly serves me is, “Who cares?” Historically, my responses to those “why” questions have always been a list of less-than-empowering activities such as excuses, justifications, blame, negative self-judgment, shouldas, couldas and wouldas. None of those ever get me any closer to the choice I really want to make in that moment, in every moment, which is to proclaim loudly and proudly, “Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages, for your enjoyment, now in the center ring…LOVE!” In fact, I’m now convinced that it’s the mental gymnastics I choose instead that represent the primary thing that stops me from making truth and love my focus in any moment.
I’m tired of the gymnastics. So I’m renewing my intention to pay attention to what I’ve chosen to place in the center ring and to take responsibility for placing it there. Yes, often it seems as if my mind were a 50-ring circus. Yes, I have old tapes and mental mechanisms that make it easier for me to give the spotlight to fear, lack and limitation. But when I simply notice I’ve done that and take responsibility for doing it (instead of engaging in shoulds and “yeah, buts”), it’s a lot easier to shine the light of my awareness where I really choose to.
This choice to focus on truth is apparently one I need to make over and over again. I practice it in meditation so I can do it more easily in my “normal” life. And it gets easier. Every time I remember to make that kind of choice, I leave a little trail of breadcrumbs that make my highest truth easier to find the next time.
There’s more good news about all this related to how our brains and nerve systems work. It’s called reciprocal inhibition. Whatever I put in the center ring of my awareness expands, and all the lunacy and mayhem on the fringes diminish. This motivates me to keep making the choice for joy and peace without excessive resistance or justification. I’d rather have joy and peace in the center ring and not resistance and justification!
My hip is pretty much fine again, and I bless it once again for helping me to practice making the choice for truth (and for feeling better, too). There were times in the first week or two after injuring it when the choice to focus on my highest truth seemed very difficult to make, and what I discovered was that by simply being willing to make it, that helped. When the pain or frustration or worry seemed overwhelming, I remembered (most of the time) to simply say to myself, “I am willing to experience joy right now.” That really helped me to remember all the tools I have for accessing joy, and the willingness itself felt a lot better than the angst. Even when the angst wouldn’t completely leave the center ring, taking responsibility for choosing it felt more empowering and hopeful than being at its mercy.
I know we each have everything we need to live our life so well that when we die, the world cries and we rejoice. It’s happening right now in the center ring…so it behooves me to be mindful and responsible about what I put there!
And if that’s all I remember, that’s more than enough for now.
