Photo by Marina Gondra via Pinterest
A – Z Challenge – Day 23
“Life is beautiful, as long as it consumes you. When it is rushing through you, destroying you, life is gorgeous, glorious. It’s when you burn a slow fire and save fuel, that life’s not worth having.” ~ D. H. Lawrence
A Handmade Life
I love the show, Nashville. What I love most is the original music on the show — and that it depicts the life of a singer-songwriter — something I pursued for many years in New York City (with some small success). The twisting and branching harmonies, the plaintive steel guitar, the lyrics that feel like they were stripped from my diary, the melodies that I can’t forget — all of it takes me back to those halcyon days when I dreamed, day and night, of a music career. (I loved the show, Smash, for many of the same reasons – only in its celebration of building a Broadway show.)
Funny thing is, these days, I have the life I longed for then: a vocation (or calling) I love that uses me up, that fosters my creativity and that allows me to have an impact on other people, particularly the young. A family of friends and confidants and colleagues and small four-legged fur people. A place to grow peppers and rosemary and oranges. Enough down time to dawdle over coffee and write lines of poetry in my many blank books strewn throughout the house. An embarrassingly huge book and music collection. My piano and my writing desk.
In other words, a handmade, creative life.
Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life ~ Omar Khayyan
A Life That’s Good
So, I’ve been thinking about a song from Nashville that I heard earlier this week, called ‘A Life That’s Good‘. It has continued to play inside my head as a quiet reminder to appreciate what I have and to take nothing for granted.
We live in a wonderful world, but it seems to be a human tendency to focus on only the aspects of life that are terrible, the aspects that break us, scare us, and stop us from moving forward. Instead of listening to our better angels, we listen to the worst part of our natures – the inner critic (or monkey mind) that tells us we suck, no matter what we do.
And the thing is, we build a life that sucks if that’s what we focus on. (Like attracts like.)
So, we must learn to put the monkey mind in a cage on the coffee table, and go out into the world without its snide, running commentary.
Otherwise, we become joyless and we cannot create anything.
And, that’s why we’re here. We’re here to bloom, to become a riot of color, to step up with our unique and particular talents and abilities to create ‘a life that’s good.’
In A Wonderful World
“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.” ~ Marcus Aurelius
How can we create this handmade life? This good life?
By turning toward what we can do each day, and doing it with love. By acknowledging our blessings and recognizing that everyone has sh*tty days. By realizing that our struggles are often what our soul most needs in order to grow. By stepping up and becoming the best version of ourselves that we can possibly be.
Dwell in beauty. Dwell in possibility. Dwell in gratitude. Plant seeds. Feed your soul.
Never forget why you are here.
And if by chance, you don’t know, find out.
Carve out your path.
Do everything in your power to make it wonderful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5TwT69i1lU
© 2014 Shavawn M. Berry All rights reserved
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