“You can’t get full staring at someone else’s plate”

My friend used this quote earlier in the week. I am guilty of this all the time. It’s so easy to look at what is happening in everyone else’s life and wonder why things don’t work that way for you. It’s hard to maintain the focus we need on ourselves without finding a way to compare it with others. By our nature we are comparative, social beings. We want to know what others are doing. We want to know why. And we want to know if it would benefit us just as well or if it will bring us down. And it’s hard not to let those things get into our heads and manifest in a way where fear, jealousy, and confusion emerge.

We have a tendency to throw ourselves off track. We forget our main focus and get confused by all of the little details. But no one else is going where we are going. No one else’s path will be the same. We can do exactly the same things as the person beside us, but still end up with completely different results. We are all suited for different things that work at different ways and in different times. We have to remember that though it’s impossible not to look at what others are doing, we have to keep our main focus on ourselves. We can look to others for guidance and advice, but we can’t look at their situation and spend all of our time wishing things we the exact same for us or believe that doing exactly as they do will make things right for us. We are similar, yet unique. And we have to maintain that balance and go forth in the direction that works the best for where we are at that time. Besides, when we consume someone else’s plate in addition to ours, the ultimate results are rarely  what we’d like them to be!

 

Happy Friday all, I hope your weekends are wonderful!

Inspiration and Gratitude

Image drawn by Sarah S. Smith

 

Painted by Sarah S. Smith

 

The above pictures were drawn/painted by my exceptionally talented friend Sarah (http://sarahssmith.com/).  I tried to leave them large so that you all could see how wonderful they are. The first picture is a drawing I asked her to do of Jack. This came from a picture that I took during his first ever trip to the park. The detail in her images is absolutely incredible. Whenever anyone comes over and sees the drawing in my house they can’t help but comment on how amazing it is. I was showing a friend her artwork the other day, and I was struck by how inspiring it is when we see people using their talents.

When we display the things we have hidden within us, we have the capacity to move people. To lift them up, strengthen and inspire them. When we take the time to foster those things that we have to share, it matters. We all have different strengths. We all have different things to offer in different ways. We have something within us, innately inherit unto us that was designed to connect with others. We can’t always speak well, or draw well, or sing well, but we all have something we can and should do to help others. When we are willing to rise up and share those things we make a difference. We help people heal, we help them soar, we help them feel compelled to use their talents as well.

 

I also wanted to take this time to say thank you to the following people for nominating me for awards. Thank you all so much for taking the time out to read this and even though I haven’t been able to write as much lately, I really appreciate everyone sticking around and helping lift my spirits as well!

 

http://ivegotastory.wordpress.com/

http://chroniclesofbadtimes.wordpress.com/

http://transformedbythejourney.com/

http://foroneplease.wordpress.com/2012/07/29/inspiration-awarded/

http://headywriting.wordpress.com/

 

 

As the sun sets

 

The other night I was driving home with Jack and the sun was starting to set. Jack was getting upset because he didn’t want it to be night time, that meant it would be time for bed soon, and he wanted to go visit his cousins instead of sleeping. We were set to go to his cousins house the next day, so I told him he had to let the sun set otherwise he wouldn’t get to see him. He got mad and wanted it to be time to visit right then, but I said if we visited at this time then he wouldn’t get to see them for very long, because everyone had to go to sleep soon.

We hold onto things and ideas we want very tightly. We know what we want to do, and we want it to happen now. We can see the good things, we just aren’t there yet. And going through and waiting is always hard. And when what we have to wait through is the darkness, which can be unpredictable it’s even harder.

 Sometimes it feels like the thing we want to happen. The thing is we have to allow that to be an option. We have to let go of the day, we have to let the sun set, and make it through the night if we ever want to see a new day. If we never move into the night, if we settle for less than the best, then we make it harder on ourselves. If we hold on and force things to fit inside a mold that they don’t really belong in, the mold will eventually break or the things inside of it will. We have to fight for things, and we have to know what we want, but we have to let things be as well. The sun sets for a reason. Nothing would survive without the night. We couldn’t strengthen our roots, we would turn brittle and break if we didn’t have the nights to cool the skies. And even though the dark can be scary, it also has a beauty that’s nearly unsurpassed. We can see more of the universe in the dark than we can in the day. We can use that time to hone our dreams, to find our path. But only if we let the sun set on today.