Fed Up

Fed Up

In order for real change to take place, one must be so fed up with the old that there is no other choice but the new.  The former way of life must no longer hold us in her grips, allowing room for existence to be altered as needed.  But no matter how you look at it, change is still change and the momentum of it is often not easy, although the reasons behind it are compelling and undeniable.

We are pilgrims on the journey of life and abide here for only a certain amount of time, a fact so important that it often becomes the springboard for change, highlighting the significance that we are only given so many opportunities to do it.  Unless of course if you believe in reincarnation, which by nature just means that you keep getting the same opportunity given to you over and over again, life after life, until you finally take it.  In his poem, The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost eloquently leads us to reflect on how frequently we are at the precipice of change and the precipice of personal and spiritual growth.  He reminds us of the one who is the decider of change and the one who has all the power, You.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Life is a buffet of choices and sometimes we must let go of our deliberations and trying this and that in order to participate in the choiceless choice, that one decision that is a game changer and that creates everlasting change.  We can be the hamsters on the wheel hopping off every now and then or we can stand in our wisdom, knowing that we would rather go forward than keep repeating the same circles.  And therein lies the crossroads, the crux of our existence, do we want to keep things as they are or do we want Real Change?  Yesterday we highlighted the idea of being Fed By Fear and how life is a series of choices that come down to either love or fear.  As we look closely at our nutritional habits, for example, we can often distinguish what foods we use as loving fuel for our bodies for the day ahead and what foods we use to comatose the body as a means of fear and self-sabotage.  It is only until we are fed up with being fed by fear that we begin to nourish ourselves with something new and something true; that place where food is secondary behind the loving intentions we have for ourselves.  Thus, food choices become a byproduct and not the sole product.  We come to that place where the momentum for change becomes so great that we have no choice but to take it, the choiceless choice.

Experience typically shows that change is good, for in every shift there is something to be learned and gained.  Immediately or in time, you are rewarded for your courage in letting go of the status quo, for listening to your heart, and for taking the leap.  You became so fed up that you in turn made a change to become well fed.  It is that choice that makes all the difference in the world and for the world.  You become the example of what is possible because you took the road less traveled and became fearless in the face of change.

Robert Frost ends his famous poem by emphasizing the difference one choice can make:  a choice made in love and with good intention can lend you to looking back on the journey taking a well deserved, “sigh,” for a job well done.   A courage well exercised and exemplified.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.