Appreciate the now
It is a beautiful day in Dana Bay, so much so, that I put aside my current work responsibilities and I stroll down to the beach. The air is fresh and cool. I can feel Spring winking to me as I look around and see all the green leaves and colourful patches of wild flowers. It is high tide and the sea is a magnificent blue. The familiar pod of dolphins are slowly cruising about, here and there one of them surfing a wave. How grateful I am for this magnificence, this wonder of being alive and to be at a place filled with such beauty.
Emerge from the contrast
The actual reason for me heading out to the beach, links to a phone call I received moments ago from a very good friend of mine. We spoke about some challenges she is experiencing at the moment and how she can get through this contrast and grasp the stunning future that is awaiting (actually it already exists, but that is a story for another time). I mentioned to her that I have learned that to move forward in happiness, we need to be content where we are. If not, we take the contrast with into the future and our reality does not change. We repeat the same cycle over and over again, just in a different environment.
The conversation with her lingers in my head and I decide to send her a picture of the sea and so I end up walking to the beach. Half way down the steps I see this small purple flower, part of the family of succulents that are bursting in their fullness at the moment. I cannot resist to sit with it for a moment, as it reminds me of the conversation I just had with my friend. Here is a flower, so small and vulnerable, its roots settled in nothing but loose sand. Its environment looks barren and hostile, but still it is blooming. And that is it – even in circumstances that may not look beneficial to me as an outsider, this tiny flower is blooming, opening up to the sun. It is taking all the nutrients it can get and uses it to its advantage. It is not even thinking about how difficult it is to grow and how it rather would be on the other side of the walkway where there are an abundance of beautiful flowers not so exposed to the wind and other elements. It just does what is does best, it grows, and it flourishes.
Often I learn the most valuable lessons from nature and I apply it to myself and in coaching. What I take from this flower is that I need to be content with where I am. I do not need to accept that I will be there forever, that I will be stuck in these terrible circumstances, battling through my daily existence. No, I only acknowledge that where I am is where I need to be for now, and what I make of it is up to me, no-one else. I need to look around and say, “hey, yes, my life is not going the way I would like it to be at the moment, but I will make the best of it, I will allow myself to only act on my responsibilities and not respond to other people’s projections. I will do what I can, the best I can, and I will hold on to my dream, because I know, even though I may not experience it right now, there is something amazing for me and I have the power to make it happen”.
Live a life of abundance
Every one of us is here for a reason, a purpose, an amazing, wonderful, exciting, fulfilling purpose. This purpose is not to suffer, it is to thrive. It does, however, not mean we will never have challenges in our lives. These challenges or contrasts are there to make us aware of what we do not want. It motivates us towards what we do want, our dreams, our visions, our futures of abundance. To experience this reality of abundance, we need to let go of the negative emotions that keep us trapped in feelings of despair and hurt, the negative beliefs that give birth to the dark conversations in our heads. We need to break the chains around our ankles with armour of contentment, take up our swords of justice, and march on to that life of abundance that only we can create for ourselves, no-one else.
