Rule #94: Live deliberately-snowshoe rule
“The mass of men live lives of quiet desperation, and go to the grave with the song still inside them”
Thereau, Walden
I think about that book and the that wonderful quote often. You will find yourself as you approach 60 thinking about it a great deal as well. It sums up the experience, the essence of life’s quest.
Two books to read in your youth are Walden and A Pilgrams Progress, very different books. But they both point to the importance of finding purpose in our lives. Sometime late at night in your late 50’s you will think of these books and ask yourself “does my life have purpose?”, “did I do things that allows me to sing the song God gave me?”
There are only two decisons you make in life that will allow you to answer YES to those questions with certainty.
The first is to choose to look at life as a gift or a burden.
We are all faced snowshoeing through the blizzard of challenges in life. There will be periods of white outs where we are completely blinding us to where we are headed. Some of us will choose to curse the storm and damn God for putting us in it rather than Aruba. These people will sit down, refusing to move.. Dying pissed off and angry at God. Its a cold and bitter way to live,
Others will choose a path, and make a decision to walking towards the warmth of a cabin with a warm fire and brandy. It comes down to believing that the cabin is there or not, and it requires movement to get there. Movement is life. Staying still will lead to a frozen heart.
The certainties are that there will be a storm, and that none of us know for certain if the cabin even exists.
The second decision is who we choose to travel with in our life.
Some of us are loners and trust no one. They choose lives of self reliance where they charge into the storm, trusting in no one and nothing but themselves. A few make it to the cabin, but they drink alone.
Others find a leader who’s guide rope they can grab on to when they can see nothing in front of them. It could be family, friends, church, work… Often a spouse or partner. Choicing the right rope is everthing.
There are many that lead in circles. Others that lead you off the steepest ice clifts. Finding the right guiderope to hold on to, and being able to trust that they care as much about you as themselves is the key. They may not know where they are going ( because honestly none of us do) but they do care about you. Choosing the right rope will make all the difference.
Some times we grab on to the wrong rope, and only deep in the storm we realize that we are only being lead, and not care for by our guiderope puller. Letting go of that rope can be the scarest thing that we do in our lives.. But the most important. Choicing the right rope will determine not only if we survive, but if we have a chance to be happy doing so.
We also pull our own ropes with other people following us. Our childern, friends and co- workers watch our rope course in complete trust in us because their course will be changed with our rope change. Choose wisely.
Enjoy the blizzard…stay warm and keep moving.