We all know those quotes. The ones that talk about how life is all fine if you just look at the bigger picture. Quotes like: "find joy in your journey" or "after a storm, there's always a rainbow". You've heard them, seen them, maybe even said them (guilty: 13 year old facebook status' can really kill ya looking back) but can I just be real honest about all of those quotes? Those quotes, they make me want to gag.
You see, I can read those quotes over and over again, hoping to get something out of them that will want me to continue on my "journey" but all is see is just fluff. Nothing in those quotes are going to want to make me continue on my so called "journey", especially when it's hard.
I'm a lover of words. Words that carefully thought out, well delivered and truth speaking. Which in turn, makes me a lover of quotes. After all the title of this blog comes from my favorite quote. That being said, I'm a lover of quotes that are rooted in reality, screaming hope, and honest. Quotes like this one by Albert Camus: "In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer." or this one by Henry David Thoreau: "You must live in the present, launch yourself on every way, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island opportunities and look towards another land. There is no other land, there is no other life but this." To me, those speak volumes, they resonate with my soul. Those words want me to actually look at this "journey", even when it's hard.
I'm about the embark on week four of this season and it's already proven to be one that will push me beyond my previous limits. I'm going to have to dig deep and for the first time, focus solely on making it through each day, each mile of this life journey. For a while I didn't want to do that, I just wanted to fly through this year and keep my eyes on my future hopes: a contract somewhere. I think this year though is making me do exactly what those cliché and not cliché quotes are saying. This year, I'm learning I need to embrace this journey. Not look for the future, anticipate what could come but to really take time to process each and everyday and where it pushes me, mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually. I'm learning this year I need to find my "invincible summer" and not stand on my "island of opportunities and look at another". I need to take each storm and "look for the rainbow" and of course, "find joy in the journey" that this year will bring. As cliché as that all just sounded, each day I'm finding it's ringing more and more true.
My brother, Tyler, has recently been writing for "The Sentinel", a local newspaper in our town, about his senior year cross country season and what is looks like in his eyes. His last article is one that resonated and inspired me greatly. In it, he wrote this: "Dreaming is believing, but over-focusing on the future can be detrimental." I'm making Tyler's quote the quote for my season because it's so true. I have this year, a hard but important year , and I can either take what it's teaching me and accept it or dwell simply on the future which, as Tyler says, will be detrimental. So, I'll choose to accept it. I'll stand tall and proud on my island, take each storm as it hits and who knows, maybe I'll even look for each rainbow. ;)
You see, I can read those quotes over and over again, hoping to get something out of them that will want me to continue on my "journey" but all is see is just fluff. Nothing in those quotes are going to want to make me continue on my so called "journey", especially when it's hard.
I'm a lover of words. Words that carefully thought out, well delivered and truth speaking. Which in turn, makes me a lover of quotes. After all the title of this blog comes from my favorite quote. That being said, I'm a lover of quotes that are rooted in reality, screaming hope, and honest. Quotes like this one by Albert Camus: "In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer." or this one by Henry David Thoreau: "You must live in the present, launch yourself on every way, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island opportunities and look towards another land. There is no other land, there is no other life but this." To me, those speak volumes, they resonate with my soul. Those words want me to actually look at this "journey", even when it's hard.
I'm about the embark on week four of this season and it's already proven to be one that will push me beyond my previous limits. I'm going to have to dig deep and for the first time, focus solely on making it through each day, each mile of this life journey. For a while I didn't want to do that, I just wanted to fly through this year and keep my eyes on my future hopes: a contract somewhere. I think this year though is making me do exactly what those cliché and not cliché quotes are saying. This year, I'm learning I need to embrace this journey. Not look for the future, anticipate what could come but to really take time to process each and everyday and where it pushes me, mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually. I'm learning this year I need to find my "invincible summer" and not stand on my "island of opportunities and look at another". I need to take each storm and "look for the rainbow" and of course, "find joy in the journey" that this year will bring. As cliché as that all just sounded, each day I'm finding it's ringing more and more true.
My brother, Tyler, has recently been writing for "The Sentinel", a local newspaper in our town, about his senior year cross country season and what is looks like in his eyes. His last article is one that resonated and inspired me greatly. In it, he wrote this: "Dreaming is believing, but over-focusing on the future can be detrimental." I'm making Tyler's quote the quote for my season because it's so true. I have this year, a hard but important year , and I can either take what it's teaching me and accept it or dwell simply on the future which, as Tyler says, will be detrimental. So, I'll choose to accept it. I'll stand tall and proud on my island, take each storm as it hits and who knows, maybe I'll even look for each rainbow. ;)
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