Crossing the Bridges: One Small Step
To cross any given bridge, you need to start by taking a step, literally and metaphorically.
One of the reasons I began this particular blog post was to help me get my head screwed on straight, while I assess both where I am and where I want to be. Positivity is a specific topic, and far more general, and while Pathwalking is my life philosophy, it is also a more specific focal point.
What neither address is the more personal picture of who I am. My specific plans, my specific path, my struggles and challenges and victories and so on and so forth.
At the beginning of this particular blog I explained that I have several different “worlds” I give time and attention to, literally. But because I am but one man, I have bridges between these worlds, which I am frequently crossing day to day.
Last week I shared some actions I intended to take to cross those bridges, so that I can accomplish more of what I want from this life. It has been an imperfect start, but I have done better this week with my time management. I have not done quite as much exercise as I would want, but I have been meditating. I have not gotten quite as much writing or editing completed as I wanted, but I have done some, and I have been re-reading Harbinger. My diet has been better, I am working to cut back/cut out processed sugar, and cut back on specific carbs like breads and pastas.
These may not be the grand strides I desire to take across the bridges, but every step counts. This is something important I need to be more open to. I have said for years now that it’s the journey that counts nearly as much, if not more than the goal at the end.
Walking the path, crossing the bridge, going on a walkabout, I am clearly a fan of ambulatory metaphors. This is also true of fencing, but I usually take more of a water/swimming metaphor. Still ambulatory, though.
But that’s the thing. Life is CONSTANTLY in motion. Just because you are sitting still or resting, does not mean that life is not still moving. As Yoda said, “Always in motion is the future.”
And that is why it is so very important to be mindful of and grateful for the steps we take. We are constantly moving, always shifting through time and space, and even when we are not, SOMEONE out there is. Because this is the truth, we need to be more mindful of the here-and-now, because what the future holds is a mystery, and the past is already behind us.
I am working on being more mindful of my here-and-now. If I get caught up in berating myself for past mistakes, or questioning steps I have already taken along the way, I can get stuck, and as such find myself taking no actions. Not only will I get nowhere towards where I want to be in the future, I will spend my time, now, out of focus. This puts me in danger of losing awareness of my surroundings, and as such quite possibly missing out on important and interesting stuff.
On the other side of that same coin, concern for the future. Yes, I am very concerned about the state of the government here in the US, and I worry that a lot of freedoms are about to be curtailed, that many will lose health insurance and civil rights, and that the middle class will be obliterated so that the oligarchy remains in power. BUT – if I focus on all the possible what-ifs of the future, most of which I have little to no control over, I equally disable my ability to do anything useful for my life, here-and-now.
It is important to be mindful of the past and consider the future, but I have written time and again about how this immobilizes us if we give them too much energy and attention. It’s a societal thing, I think, to lump people into these overarching groups, calling people either forward-thinkers or backwards, nevermind that right here, right now we are all in this time and place together.
What’s my point? Let me take what I think is a personally important step.
I am a writer. First and foremost, that is who I am. For a long time I have been caught up in how people will think of me and my work, and about the variations of what I write. I sometimes get annoyed with myself for not writing enough, but the truth is that I AM A WRITER. You are reading my words right now, and maybe you also read my posts about Positivity on Mondays or join me for Pathwalking on Wednesdays.
At the least I write three days a week. Even though the time of my posts vary, EVER WEEK I put these here, because I am a writer. Writing is my passion, because there are so many things in my head, so many ideas, so many concepts and thoughts, worlds and characters and plots…I just have to get them to the page. Since my childhood, this has been me, and I am saying, here and now, that’s who I am.
This is one step on the path, one step across the bridge. Acknowledging who I am, recognizing my own identity. It may seem like a small step, but every step, big or small, is progress.
Thank you for being my audience. And Thank You for crossing the bridges between my worlds with me.
GOAL LOG – Week 1:
Diet: Some improvement in being mindful about what and how much I am eating.
Exercise: Two days of fencing, two days at the gym.
Writing: The three blogs got written, and I did work on the sci-fi story.
Meditation: Four days of mediation, never less than 6 minutes.
Gratitude: I wrote five things I was grateful for five days this week.
This is the fifteenth entry of my personal journey, the Crossing the Bridges series. My collectively published writing can be found here.
Follow me here!
