The Finish Line

"No one has a problem with the first mile of the journey.

Even an infant could do fine for a while.

But it isn't the start that matters.

It's the finish line."

Julien Smith

THE FLINCH

 

 

If I need to be inspired, reading Julia Cameron's book THE RIGHT TO WRITE rekindles all of the excitement I experience when I choose to write.  This was not so true when I was younger.  I would choose to write from my dark side and my words were angry, harsh and abrasive.  There was also  a time I wished I could write while I was happy.  I did not notice being happy was a choice.  It was something I waited for ... and waited for.  Now, when I am feeling unsettled, I can write and feel balance creeping back in carrying calm and connection.

Julia Cameron comments that writers say, "I just string words together."  She believes that writers choose words like jewelers choose beads.  Words are fingered like beads, selecting and joining them until we feel as though something has been completed.  We pay attention to cadence and harmony, arranging and then re-arranging as something different catches one or more of our five senses.

Very seldom will I leave a writing incomplete.  If I do not finish in one attempt, rarely do I continue when I come back to it.  Some how I have lost the flow, the intention, or where I was headed.  I find this to be true in my life as well.

Gary Zukov in his latest book, SPIRITUAL PARTNERSHIP, discusses how we express ourselves in various roles we play in life.  He suggests we may be playing dual roles simultaneously and they may switch completely from time to time or within minutes.  He cautions that the danger is becoming all too familiar with a role and forgetting who we truly are as the role becomes our singular identity.  Living authentically calls for us to navigate in and out of roles learning our lessons as we go. 

So as I move from child to mother, mother to grandmother, I am adapting and learning through each role.   As a Universal Human, my primary role is life itself with all else becoming sub roles.  Perhaps this is the so called shift so many are experiencing currently.  As we learn to move in and out of roles, discovering our authentic self, there might be some discomfort in not actively playing a role.  When we are simply 'being' and experiencing just life itself without acting, we may find the sensation to be calming, but strange.  This is where the culture of productivity comes in.  When we are simply being in the moment, we may feel uncomfortable not being able to account for our time.  It may even seem selfish to just be when so much waits for us in the side wings.

The key is to keep moving forward without attachments.  Finish what we can doing the best we can, but having the ability to start anew when we are directed into a different means of experiencing life.  If we happen to become stuck along the way, we are distracted from finding the end wherever it may be waiting.  No matter what it is or when it is, the finish line is wherever Divine Spirit hopefully says, "Job well done."