Some of you have been asking if I fell into a hole somewhere and I guess the answer is “Yes”. I fell into the hole of getting my priorities out of whack, which is an easy hole to fall into, but I am comforted in knowing that, in the big picture, we are always exactly where we are supposed to be even if that is seemingly off track. Sometimes, I suppose, I have to get off track to remember what being on track looks like. Perspective I like to call it.
Well, in any case, life has still been good to us. I hired an assistant this last week and am secretly turning cartwheels when she is not looking. It still continues that life presents us with many opportunities, some of which are disguised as impossible situations, but I suppose if that were not the case, it wouldn’t exactly be life now would it? Funny how hung up on definitions I can get sometimes, which really are just expectations that I have chosen to label as “definitions”.
Something I have been thinking alot about lately is why I ride a motorcycle, probably because people have been asking me that alot lately. So it dawns on me the other day (while riding of course) that riding a motorcycle keeps me humble and grateful. This is an interesting discovery, even to me, but in the context of riding a motorcycle it makes perfect sense. I think about how many times when I am on four wheels and shielded by the frame of a car, my ego can bully people because I take what someone else does personal. Can you visualize the futility of a motorcycle trying to bully a car? I could probably draw a funny cartoon depicting this parody of life and the picture would be worth a thousand words. Maybe I will do just that!
Simply put, riding a motorcycle requires me to take responsibility for my own experience. Funny how when the line between safe and unsafe is black and white, I am more willing to assume that responsibility than when the lines get grayed by the superfluous paraphernalia of life. Come to think of it, riding a motorcycle reminds me that life really can be simple–as simple as I want to make it. Can it really be as simple as taking responsibility for my own experience in life, aka my happiness? When I stop demanding that other people adjust their actions to accommodate my happiness, can life suddenly be peaceful, instead of taxing and toiling? I would conjecture “Yes!”.
Upon such a serendipitous discovery, I realize I have so much for which to be grateful, the fact that I am able to ride a motorcycle is only the starting point at which my perspective on life’s privileges start to come into focus.
So as we enter into this time of year that brings such a mixed media of emotions, remember that life really can be simple and that its fruit lies at the heart of our relationships. Personally, my focus this year will be on the people in my life, both those that complement my joy as well as those that try to take it away. When I choose to put life in its proper perspective, I no longer have to feel threatened by others; I can just simply Be. This year, I will keep at the front of all my thoughts an Attitude of Gratitude even in the midst of those seemingly impossible situations. When I can be grateful, humility and simplicity follow naturally.