Stand square on the track
STAND SQUARE ON THE TRACK
I can remember in tracking there was a time when guys said you had to follow the track from one side and at a distance. The reason was the possibility of everything that could go wrong on the track. However, I learned and always did it differently. For me, the principle is rather that you have to stand squarely on the track, that's the only way. The reason is that in this way you put on the jacket of the one who has already walked there. Human or animal, the principle remains the same, namely, you want to become one with the track. You want to know what it was like when the other one walked there. What did he/she/it see and experience and why did they exercise certain choices in the decision to follow a different route or simply make a course adjustment? This is of course where your intuition or intuitive intelligence plays a role and takes over completely. You become one with the one who was already there. You begin to sense what the other felt whose trail you follow, and eventually, you learn to think and act like him.
The question is whether it can also be the same with our personal lives and the tracks we leave in this life. Not just whether you can become one with your intended life, but whether you can become the person you were meant to be. Within the context of life, this is probably the big question: who are you, and are you really where you should be with your life and choices? Are you one with your authentic self and do you know that you are? Surely it is the highest level of meaningfulness: to be true to who you are and to live in such a way that it in turn inspires others based on who you are.
Think about it for a moment. We live in a time more than 2000 years after Christ and yet there is so much falsehood and inauthenticity among people. A total lack of leadership worthy of imitation. Just when you think you are getting respect from someone, you become disillusioned again about the dignity with which people live. A society riddled with lies and unbelief. For many a pointless aimless struggle and search for survival and this while we are essentially created for more prosperity where a man can take care of himself first and then give to others as well. I will be the first to admit that we may have written the wrong exam at school and that what we should have learned never came our way. We are simply not prepared for this life by the school, university, church, and parents' house. Can we just say that to each other? Yet this is not reason enough to give up on life and its fullness.
There is something that no one can take away from you and that is to still be dignified in your conviction, deep down the things in which you believe. This dignity is who you are and you become it by making choices for a more meaningful life.
HOWEVER, ON MY OWN JOURNEY, I HAD TO LEARN SOME POWERFUL LESSONS
- First of all, it is not to draw a line in the ground and by implication say it is "game over". You are not meant for giving up and if there is an afterlife, who are you to pull the plug anyway? Even better. What if life after this is just another extension of what you are already doing or are now? Well, then you need to pull up your socks and stay in the art of living.
- Second, the meaningfulness or the fullness of life that you are looking for is already there and is waiting for you. It is not a goal you set. It lies in the mystery of the design of who you are. The uniqueness of your personality, gifts, and talents must take shape in the uniqueness of a person that can never be repeated. There is only one of you.
- Third, the answers you seek are within you. It's inside and already invested and you just have to get it out or pick it up. This is why the inner understanding and process of discovering who you are is so important and it is to this that you must be faithful. Self-management naturally requires a process of work and very few people get it right. Another school or university subject that never happened.
- Fourthly, it means you have to deal with this world less judgmentally and learn to just accept things for what they are. This is what it means sometimes to just be in the moment. For too long I was just too judgmental and there was only one victim and that was me. For me, this meant my unhealthy judgment was replaced with unconditional love.
- Fifth, I took life's journey too seriously and didn't realize that many things I fought hard for might not be that important. The point is I had little fun and many times got into the wrong fight in my head. There was only one victim and that was me. I had to learn to enjoy life more and it wasn't always easy.
- Sixth, it is determined by how you live and not what you achieve or do. You can achieve a lot of things in the performance box but it doesn't help anything when it comes to the how of life. That package of how when it comes to the Holy Spirit in you, it says it all with things like patience, kindness, gentleness, humility, and caring.
- Finally, I had to learn to submit myself to something or someone bigger than me. This can mean a lot to different people. For me, it's understanding that if I can't submit to something or someone bigger than me, my ego will just take over and I'll destroy myself and others. By the way, don't misunderstand the dark side of ego which always operates from the past. There is another side that is determined by a strong self. This means that there is nothing wrong with a strong self that results in high levels of self-confidence, self-worth, and a bit of self-directedness, and by that I mean focus and persistence. It takes work to be that way and it's hard work.
I guess the real test for a person is whether he can play the role that is destined for him and it looks a little different from the things that you sometimes just chase for yourself. The point is we have one life to walk the "spoor" of the person we are meant to be or better yet the tracks I am meant to leave behind while I am walking. This life is passing us by quickly, so you must learn to live in the here and now. There is no one day. The things you still want to do you have to do now. Leave your track.
The day we die, a soft breeze will blow away our footprints in the sand. When the wind is gone, who will tell the timelessness that once we walked this way at the dawn of time ... - old song ascribed to the !Xam Bushmen