“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” ~ Oscar Wilde
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” ~ Albert Einstein
“Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me.” ~ Carol Burnett
“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.” ~ Maya Angelou
Last night some of my acting students and I got into quite a discussion about the short play they were rehearsing. It’s a dark comedy. As we were talking about the characters and what could have made them the way they were, it became this wonderful “teachable” moment for us.
I’ve always approached teaching as a kind of fellow traveler. “Wow, here’s this interesting piece of literature. Let’s see if we can figure out what the playwright, movie maker, or author is trying to get us to see about the way he or she sees life. And, it’s my philosophy that my point of view is not more important than the student’s. My only job is to open doors so they can do their own thinking. I just bring up a multitude of possibilities for the students to consider.
So, it was interesting that my meditation with Oprah an Deepak today connected to the discussion the night before. Oprah said that each of us has our own path, and nice as it might be to have someone tell us the choices to make, or to give us a glimpse of what the future holds, that’s not possible. We can’t flip to the end and see where we end up. We have to just slog through life learning as we go.
To me, life is an adventure. Oh, there have been times when I’ve played it safe, but I can’t do that for long. I get bored and look for my next adventure. Sometimes the adventures I go on are strictly intellectual like the course I took this summer on Alfred Hitchcock, or emotional like having to deal with loss, or disappointment, or the ups and downs of self-discovery. But then I guess all adventures, even physical ones, have those components. Adventures, some people call them challenges or problems, shake up our lives and help us get a new perspective.
If ever I am asked to give a speech, this would be my message: There will be people who will open doors for you, but it’s up to you to walk through and find your own way. The important thing to do is to keep moving forward. Sometimes it will be hard to see the path because of all the brambles, but you have no idea how many people you will help if you just keep trying to find your way.
Something else interesting happened yesterday that relates to the message of this post. I was at the chiropractor and his wife was in the office. We hadn’t seen each other in perhaps ten years. She told me, “I knew you right off, because you look exactly the same as the last time I saw you.” And she said something else, “You look so happy.” I told her I am happy. All the challenges I’ve had to go through have been worth it. That doesn’t mean there won’t be more things for me to learn, but because I’ve come to love myself and my life, they will be so much easier to deal with.
That’s always my hope for my students, friends and family members, that the challenges they face will help them clear out the guck so they can arrive at a happy place.
Thanks for reading, liking and commenting on my posts. I appreciate it. Have a happy weekend.
Lucinda Sage-Midgorden © 2017
Lucinda is the author of The Space Between Time, an award finalist in the “Fiction: Fantasy” category of the 2017 Best Book Awards. It’s a historical, time-travel, magical realism, women’s novel, and is available in all ebook formats at Smashwords, and print-on-demand at Amazon and other fine book sellers. To join her email list, click here. She will never sell the names on her list.
Sage Woman Chronicles 