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How’s your direction-inspired by curiosity coming along these days?
Favorably, I hope!
Those of you who are about to retire, or have already, remember as you try to figure out whether to sell your home and buy an RV, take a cruise around
world, or settle into a retirement community, “Plan to stay busy.” Ask those who have tried idleness and found it lacking in meaning and a source, eventually, of much dissatisfaction and unhappiness.
Charles Schultz, creator of Peanuts comic strip, observed that “Life is like a ten-speed bike. Most of us have gears we never use.”
To those of you a few years away from that “idle” life you imagine will be so wonderful--perhaps several or more moves are yet in your future--you have a big question to answer:
“In what should I creatively invest remaining capital of my days? What projects? What goals? What do I really CARE about?”
I’ve known people in 80’s--and one woman in her 90’s--who are still asking themselves similar questions.
One thing is certain. To quote philosopher Lao Tse, “If you do not change direction [assuming you are dissatisfied at present], you may end up where you are heading.”
What Dreams May Be
The Italian film-maker Fellini wrote, “There is no end. There is no beginning. There is only infinite passion of life.”
How strong is your commitment to what you say, in your heart of hearts, you really want? Is there anything you can start doing TODAY to power up your dream? Are you willing to make initial investment of buying back time you are giving to television every night, office talk that goes nowhere, shopping, or “havin’ a few every night before heading home,” into achieving at least one thing in your heart of hearts you know you desire?
Only you know. No one else does. The results we see in a few years, however, will let everyone you know what you decided.
“Your health is bound to be affected if, day after day, you say opposite of what you feel, if you grovel before what you dislike, and rejoice at what brings you nothing but misfortune,” Boris Pasternak wrote. “Our nervous system isn’t just a fiction.”
“Man’s main task in life,” Eric Fromm wrote, “is to give birth to himself."
This is possible only when our interest in ourselves spills over into caring about our fellow men and women. Usually getting there requires a bit of living before that spillover occurs (except, perhaps, in those children who seem to be born with “old” and “wise” souls).
They are exceptions.
We cannot live only for ourselves,” Herman Melville (author of Moby Dick) wrote. “A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow-men; and along those fibers as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes and they come back to us as effects.”
Try not to let everyday life get you down. If you do, down scores a triumphant victory over life, doesn’t it?
“The lucky renew their energy through activity in which they’re engaged.” –-Max Gunther
“There is no end,” Fellini reminds us. “There is no beginning. There is only infinite passion of life.”
The infinite passion of life!
What a great emotion to live from, wouldn’t you agree?
More about me can be found at:
http://www.astro-earth-relocation.com/james%20by%20phone.htm
e-mail: jamesbyphone@aol.com
During his television career James has shared meaning-filled conversations with film stars, recording artists, US Presidents and first ladies, state governors, world-famous authors, scientists, and people from most every walk of life.
More about me can be found at: http://www.astro-earth-relocation.com/james%20by%20phone.htm
e-mail: jamesbyphone@aol.com
