In The Soul’s First Kiss, there is an exchange between Kian and Sal where Kian says bitterly, ketodietposts “So we just need to accept that this is all part of God’s plan and that will explain everything?” To which Sal replies, “What does God have to do with it?… This was all your choosing…”
Once I started the exploration of the possibility of soul mates in our lives, it quickly became clear that a parallel truth was our active participation in our own existence, legalsolid on both the spiritual and physical levels. Personally, while I have enjoyed my life very much, I also wouldn’t wish it on anyone. And, until I was able to wrap my mind around my own role in the seemingly random events that have created the winding road I’ve followed, many of the adversities that I have faced in my life were very confusing to me.
From my perspective, I tend to view negative situations-whatever form they take-as falling into one of two categories: Either the situation is a deliberate, valorantis test which I somehow agreed to prior to birth; or the consequence of a choice I made which I now have to somehow work my way out of. Of course, the answer to why I find myself in a negative situation is inconsequential. There I am… and I want to get past it as quickly and painlessly as possible. Sometimes wisdom isn’t merely the insight to keep us on the path, it’s the ability to find our way back when we find we have wandered off of it and gotten lost.
Having grown up in the mountains of Montana, gamerdidi I like to use the analogy of hiking up a mountain path to illustrate the point. Life, like the steep climb up the path, isn’t easy, but once we start to enjoy the hike, we can begin to notice the amazing beauty that we are immersed in with every step of our climb. The path is there for a reason-it makes the climb easier. To our right is a sheer rock wall which, theoretically, we could decide to scale instead, in an attempt to take a more direct route to the summit… regardless of the physical impossibility of success. To our left is a long, sliding drop off into the forests below. There are many interesting things down there… and a lot of extra obstacles as well.
Sometimes, in our spontaneous exercise of free will, we, for reasons that seem perfectly logical at the time, choose to leap off the mountain path to freely explore and frolic, basketoffers in the woods below. Sadly, nature is not designed to embrace the human body trampling around in it… or we weren’t designed to trample around in it… either way, the beauty of the forest can quickly be lost when you are constantly getting poked by trees.
At some point in our frolic, it occurs to us that we are definitely not getting any closer to the mountaintop-though we’re pretty sure that the mountaintop is much further,lastgain away than when we slid off the obvious path. And, while we may justify our decision as a deliberate exploration of our individualism, creativity, and exercise of free will, the truth of the matter is that we still have to get to the mountaintop sooner or later.
The tricky part is to accept that the source of all of our obstacles is actually, ourselves. It certainly might be accurate to look at a childhood event or circumstance of birth which is clearly beyond our control as some cruel act of fate. Perhaps it was. Perhaps it represented a lesson to be learned. But, even if it was completely unjust and random-that’s where we are. The choice at any moment in our lives is always-What are we going to do now?
As adults, we always make the choice we believe is the best possible under all the surrounding circumstances. Even when we know it is the wrong choice, we justify it in our own ways. And, sooner or later, we’re going to have to make another choice. We can either choose to sit down in the middle of the forest and pretend that the mountaintop no longer interests us; or we can forge another path which will hopefully lead to the easy route we accidentally or deliberately abandoned earlier.
The good news, from a spiritual perspective, is that the mountain isn’t going anywhere. It will patiently await our return whenever we manage to get ourselves back there, whether it be in this life or the next… or the next after that. And I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve had many moments where I’ve looked in the mirror and thought, “Why the hell would you choose this?” And I’ll just as freely admit that I usually have no clear answer to that question in my moments of spiritual indignation. But I did choose this. Rightly or wrongly. Often, deliberate meditation leads me to a satisfactory answer… sometimes I still have no clue. But the beauty of all of our present circumstances is that the next step will be in a direction entirely of our choosing, and take us exactly where we need to be in that moment.