Future Perspective

There's a lot of things that I love about my mother, but one thing that I will always remember is that when she begins a new book, she would often glance at the final chapter before beginning the book.  It makes sense.  You wanna know if the story is going to go where you want it to go, and knowing what happens helps you to see the things happening in the book from the perspective of the end.  That is the theme of this post and is a new way of seeing things for me, future perspective.

Indeed, this concept will stand as a counter weight to my often posted theme of adventure.  Both are important in their own way.  You should face life without knowing all that will happen.  There is some point to not knowing, so it can be interesting and exciting as you experience life.  However, I have noticed something about how I have viewed life for most of my life.  I looked at it as if I was looking at it from the past.  How would my past self look at these days in light of the dreams I had or how would this person or that person view and judge my life.  However, what is the point of either of those things.  If you have grown from your past self, why should that self have any bearing on who you are now.  And, if people have chosen to exit your life, they kinda disqualified themselves to be an authority on who you you are having given up on you before you grew and improved.

I do not think it is a wise thing to see things from the present perspective, either.  Life is happening all around you in a lot of ways.  It is mixed and sloppy and fluid.  Theologically, there was a distinction between the spirit and the soul in that the spirit was life and action and change, but the soul is what maintained character and depth.  I say that only to say that any given momemt is just that.. a moment.  We should never judge anything by the page upon which we read.

But, if you have taken the time to know yourself and what you want in life, those dreams are you future.  When you look with a backwards perspective from assumption of having reached those dreams, what is the value of the past that didn't work..... what is the value of the present that you are doing?  Each failure becomes a learning step, and each choice becomes guided by the future perspective.  Instead of feeling depressed for not being there, yet, you can draw joy from a future perspective that you are only on chapter 2 with a lot of story to go to get to your reams.  You'll get there.

So, I will be adopting a future perspective of my life.  I know what I want to achieve and experience.  If choices do not lead me there, those choices can be made better.  I will not know exactly how the end result will look, but that's where hope comes into play.  Hope is knowing you trust the result, even if you do not know the way, and that leads us back to adventure.  So, I challenge you this week to look at your life from the perspective of days to come, and I will be doing the same.

Transition Chapter

Chapter: Present

 

The last chapter has ended, and this is your transition chapter of your life.  Anyone that has read any amount of books knows that stories do not go in a straight line.  There are rises and falls, switched settings, growth of characters, introduction of new characters or settings, returns of characters or settings, and so on and so forth.  However, when you begin the transition chapter, you are like... what is happening?  Who is that?  What does this mean?  And, what will happen, next?

Your past chapters were fascinating.  Weren't they?  If I look back over my life, I can see chapters of great pleasure or deep struggle or great learning, or life changes.  I can reflect on many different times that I thought.. this is the most important thing in my whole life, and this is the greatest joy.  I've also had moments that I look back and wonder how I survived those moments... more of those over my life than I care to remember.  I've lived in many different places, and I felt that all of them had things to teach me about life, and they did.  I've had different jobs from professional to service to more.  Again, each of them grew qualities in myself that I didn't know existed.  Indeed, especially as I get older, I am now quick to know that I do not even KNOW who I will be, where I will be, and how my life will look 10 years from now... 5 years from now... 1 year from now... shoot, 6 months from now.  

But.. that's future chapters.

This is your transition chapter.  This is your opportunity to change.  This is where you begin new things, make new connections, change your storyline, and introduce a plot shift...one you may not even undersand or know, right now. This is where you reflect on the past, hope for the future, but LIVE TODAY and learn from it.  Your life is neither a fairy tale or a tragedy.  Your life... your book's pages... are being written by every day's stroke of the pen.  So, why not make it interesting.  You don't have to please those no longer in the story.  You don't have to live up to old plot expectations.  You can do... whatever you want to do, and I would suggest that you do.  Have fun, and let that fun teach you about yourself and where you should be heading.

And, then... you will be ready for the next great chapter of your life.