Anchors...

As I travel down the lively and trodden path that I so often choose in my life, I will many times look up and see that I have stumbled in to a rediscovered but forgotten lane, teaming with memories and a completeness that I only know from having reached the end of this circle at a prior juncture. In some ways the story of my life is a story of repetition and recycling of experiences into a new and fresh moment and meaning. While I have seen the cycle of life repeat itself around me many times already and old things become new again...I always understand that it is with this insight and perception that I receive lessons and knowledge...however mundane or creative they might be.

Whatever understanding and knowledge I possess at this moment in my life...I do realize that it is with great leading by someone or something far greater than I. I have been gifted free will in this journey described as life...and I may choose how I perceive and view things about and around me...but it is with a great and profound respect that I humbly accept anything that has been bestowed upon me in regards to any ability to the understanding of any thing.

It is from this deep respect...this place of humility and reverence in my mind and in my soul...that I hold as a place of foundation. An anchor to those things in me that...in a moment of pride or arrogance...I might elevate to actually coming from me...but I know they do not. It is wrong for me to assume myself so superior to another...that I would believe myself more important...more knowledgeable...more understanding...more educated...more compassionate...more empathetic...more creative...or more valuable. I am not.

What I am...is unique.

There is very little that we actually know in this life. Most of the things we think we know...are things we take in through our abilities to perceive the world...our imperfect and often fallible senses. How is it that when standing on a set of railroad tracks...and gazing down the tracks towards the horizon...the tracks seem to converge? Do they converge? No...they do not. How is it that our memory of an event differs from a picture taken from it or a video long since forgotten which documented the memory? How is it that with given the right stimulus...we human beings remember things that never happened? Can we create pseudo-memories? Yes...we can...and we fully believe them. How can it be...that what things we hear...smell...taste...touch...and see...can so often be so different than the exact same things experienced by another standing right next to us?

It is because we are all unique.

But don't we all fail? Don't we all succeed? Do we not all bleed red and live in accordance to our own nature? Do we all feel the same pains and desire the same outcomes when faced with those pains? Do we not all love? So how is it that we are unique...if we are all so much the same? It goes so far beyond our senses and simply our experience. It goes down to the very core of who we are as individuals. Those things each of us sense as important. Those things that we...each of us...base our lives and existence on...what we stake our purpose in...what we anchor ourselves to...

Most of us are profoundly anchored in our sense of safety and security. We strive for attaining it and then work hard at maintaining it. We focus on it actually...at times...to our own detriment. But it keeps us anchored. There are some...for whom....safety and security only come by letting go of things that are held secure...things that are considered by the individual as safe...and it is there...without the appearance of safety and security that this individual feels safe and secure...because they believe that in their lack of safety and security...they are truly living...but it is an anchor all the same...

Our anchors are those things which keep us grounded and balanced. When an individual is most out of balance...it normally is coupled with their being untethered from their anchor...and away from their foundation. No matter how feeble our attempts at reconciliation towards balance come...we will not find our joy...our sense of serenity...our focus...our foundation...when we are untethered from our anchor.

So...I ask you...you who are reading this...what is your anchor? What is it in your life that anchors you?

And...

Do you have your joy? Your......joy....

Not your sense of safety and security...not your money...not your hobby or your profession....unless that is your joy...not your place in life...or your lot....not your accomplishments or those things you've amassed....

What...is...your....joy?