“You can waste your lives drawing lines. Or you can live your life crossing them.” Shonda Rhimes
I’m not very good with straight lines.
I don’t seem to travel from A to B (does anyone? Actually, maybe some people do but not many that I know)
But in the past, I have been somewhat fixated on the idea that there is a straight line from A to B. I have aspired to walk that line.
I love the idea - in principle - that there is a logic to life, rules, a map.
Except I always end up losing the map, breaking the rules and following the squiggly line and end up at F not B, not quite understanding how I got to F when I set off from A to get to B.
But what I’m learning is that the point is not to get to B.
By all means set off in that direction but I am learning that it’s not getting ‘there’ that’s important but the enjoying or learning from the squiggle, the surprises and rather than being destroyed by the diversions or judging ourselves as lost, that it’s more about having a relationship with the ‘what is’.
If you end up at F or Q or Z - how can you get the most out of that destination?
Life can be really shit sometimes.And it can be really beautiful. If we endlessly train our attention on being OK only if life is beautiful by reaching Point B, I have learned that it just makes the shit times even more shit.
Day 26 of the 31 day challenge, here’s some prompts:
What if you stopped drawing lines to get from A to B?
What if you embraced the squiggle?
Yes! This is my whole philosophy with the Metamorphosis Map and my life and work. Envision where you want to go, draw a map anticipating likely ups and downs and leave space to make detours or change the route entirely!