Pathwalking 75
Life is a day by day experience.
Every day brings with it something new, something different, something unique. Every day presents a new challenge, a new opportunity, new duties and new privileges.
How we approach each new day, right from the start, is going to have a major effect on the day’s outcome. It is so very easy to forget this fact, and equally easy to let it drag us down to somewhere we would rather not be.
If you wake up in the morning, and you stub your toe getting out of bed, have no hot water for the shower, get caught in traffic on the way to work, and have to park as far from the door as possible (in the rain, no less) how do you think you will be feeling? What is your attitude towards your day? What is your mindset? Are you thinking positively, or negatively?
If you wake up in the morning, and you see the sun out the window, take a perfect-temperature shower, experience no traffic en route to work, and get a nearby parking space, how do you think you will be feeling? What is your attitude towards your day? What is your mindset? Are you thinking positively, or negatively?
Of course, these are the two extremes of this concept. Most days are going to be mixed. You get out of bed and everything is great until you hit that abysmal traffic and wind up ten minutes late to work, and cannot find parking. And while the long walk into the building from the lot is in the sun, you cannot help but feel a twinge of jealousy of those hitting the beach while you’re inside doing a job.
Except that you CAN help how you feel. Because, as we have discussed many times before, feelings are something we each have control over. We can choose how we let things affect us, and ultimately we can control how we choose to feel about them.
I feel like I feel. I have no control over this, its emotional. You’re half right – it is emotional, but you have ALL the control. You choose how you feel. If you do something that makes you feel bad, if you choose not to do something to correct that, then you have chosen to feel bad. We convince ourselves that these things are out of our control – but nothing could be further from the truth.
Pathwalking is about choice. And I have learned through trial and error and repetition and experiment and experience that choices are many, far flung and frequent. Not a day goes by where I do not make choices. And that sometimes proves to be something that can be hard to swallow.
Sometimes it seems like it would be really nice to just coast along. No effort, no choices, no decisions, no possibility of choosing poorly or wrong. This is of course not the way the world works. Choices are always being made, big and small, conscious and subconscious, important and unimportant. Pathwalking is about taking more action with regards to choices, and how they are made.
Every day is different. Sure routine might make them seem similar, but they never truly are. The weather outside, the ambient temperature and humidity, how clean or unclean your skin feels, the sensation of how your clothes fit your body, smells in the air…subtle aspects of the world are never exactly the same. Keeping this in mind, we can choose every single day to make it good, or take it badly.
I am working every day to keep this in mind. I can choose how I will let my day be, how I will feel about the activities planned and surprises that might crop up along the way. When I hit traffic, do I become angry, or accept the opportunity to enjoy an audio book or music for a longer time? If I find parking far from the door, do I get annoyed about it, or enjoy the extra time walking across the lot outside?
Every one of these are choices. I am a Pathwalker, and I choose how my environment will affect my mood. And if today is less than perfect, I strive to make tomorrow better. I get to choose my day, every day. I am always seeking, walking, and making choices along that path.
Do you experience the wonders of today, or keep hoping for a better tomorrow?
This is the seventy-fifth entry in my series. These weekly posts are specifically about walking along the path of life, and my desire to make a difference in this world along the way. Thank you for joining me.
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