Life is an adventure. You only live once and sometimes one needs to throw caution to the wind and experience life and all of its glory. Time is short and we are not promised tomorrow. What is it then that we are called to do on a day to day basis? Where does the line of worry stop and the gift of trust come in and take over? I am a worrier and I can’t help myself when it comes to worrying and wanting to fix every little thing. There is a definite want and desire to not want to leave anyone out of any situation or make people not feel welcome. But what about those times when we do the exact opposite of what we try to stand for? What happens when we have those oh so real human moments and we inevitably leave someone out of the plans for the evening, forget to call them back or have miscommunicated in some form or fashion. I know that I have been the one to do this more than I ever thought would be a part of life. The fact remains we are human and fallible. No matter how much we strive for perfection there will come a time that we will fail the one that we love the most. Generally it is when we are striving to be better that life trips us up and we fail to meet the expectations that we have set for our selves. What are those expectations and what is that drives us to set them where we do?
What is that sets the hardwiring of what we are and what drives us to the core? Sometimes getting caught up in day to day goals and what we perceive as the so important goal to attain is what takes us from the daily seeking of God and his bright moments in the daily grind of life. How many times have I caught myself wishing I had this or wanted that? What happens when we don’t land the perfect dream job? What about when we think we have it all worked out and all of the sudden nothing we once thought was the very center of who we were is gone and what we have left is the person staring back at us from the mirror? Who have we become and what is it exactly that will drive us when we can no longer find the drive to carry on all on our own? That is when we are called to seek beyond this world and into the next. There is no way that we can make it all on our own sane and stable if we have nothing to fall back on when the chips are down. When we seek God first we seek a perspective that goes beyond the here and now that we live in. There is understanding that there is so much more to life than what meets the eye.
Everyone has a story and finding out everyone’s stories is a huge part of my job that I love so much. Day in day out I find myself going the extra mile and doing my utmost to find out what it is that makes each person that I meet tick. What is it that drives them and helps them aspire to do more than just the norm? I then find myself realizing that one person’s norm may be the next person’s extraordinary. The expectations that I set for myself may not have anything to do with the expectations that my neighbor may have for themselves. Each person that we meet is driven by different aspects of life and to put our expectations on another human being is beyond what anyone should ever have to aspire to be. Sure my parents want what is best for me however and sure some of their expectations of life and how to live it have become my very own. The pressure that we place upon ourselves as each day unfolds holds only true to our own selves and no one else. It is finding the places that we can connect with other individuals that make us grow and help us push to see beyond our own understandings. Perhaps it is in these moments that we were meant to grow the most and be challenged to think outside of the box. The walls that we build around ourselves can have the power to limit what we we think, feel, and perceive. Being surrounded by other people that have like minded and otherwise not so like minded ways remind us to love a little more. There is a broader view of the world that we live in as long as we keep eyes and minds open to seeing it. One never knows what tomorrow may bring, but if we keep our sights on God and all of the wonderful people we meet along the way our expectations of this world become a little bit less, and the outcome of the journey and where are headed becomes what drives and helps mold us into better versions of who we once were and perhaps we were meant to be all along.