Musings

Musings

Sunday, August 6, 2017

Best Unlaid Plans


Greetings all,

The best laid plans and so on and so forth.  All my plans used to share one trait, they never worked.  As I reintegrate into my daily life I'm having to let go once more of how I thought things should run. Still I have come back to a more centered view of plans laid or unlaid.

For many years I made plans, and then life came through and destroyed them all.  The one piece that I needed as a linchpin all of the sudden would evaporate so I'd go on to Plan B.  Plan C and D were shortly to follow.  I got through most of the alphabet when I decided to stop making plans.  I drifted.  There was much less disappointment, but I also didn't really get anywhere.  I would say I almost became afraid to hope for anything that I wanted since all my plans to move towards it always fell apart.  I mostly spent my time learning during the plan free era.  In some respects it was  a very useful time.  If my plans had worked out I never would have learned all the skills I employ now, both in my day to day life and in my chosen professions.

Eventually you have to choose a direction or have it chosen for you.  I've learned it is better to choose consciously whenever possible.  At least that way you have a vote (even if Fate overrules  you).  So I tried making more flexible plans, and they were less abysmal failures.  They weren't total successes, but some strides were made, they just seemed to be at a glacial pace.  Two steps forward, and one step back is a dance I have become familiar with.

In the past year or two, my style has shifted yet again.  Plans, even flexible ones, seem to be too structured for the chaotic happenstance in which the world operates.  Now I don't make plans, I plant seeds.  I have goals, I take an action here and there.  Planting the intent wherever I find myself.  Some of those seeds will never germinate, some won't germinate for a long time.  Some shockingly planted years ago will all sprout up at once.  Rather than trying to be a king over my life I have attempted instead to be a gardener.  I tend the seeds of possibilities as they sprout. With this approach I can be more flexible and responsive to the world around me, partnering with opportunities when they appear rather than trying to find that one perfect set of circumstances to move forward.  It is a strategy that involves a lot of letting go, and a lot of trust.  I'm not saying it is a perfect strategy, but in the past few months I have seen amazing things happen with very small efforts.  Rather than pouring enormous amounts of energy into bending the world, I am simply cultivating the bit of earth where I find myself.

So why am I telling you this?  Well many of you are in the process of manifesting the life of your dreams.  That's all well and good, but ask yourself if are you approaching it with a rigidity of mind.  Are you waiting for the perfect variables to make your move?  I'm all for picking your moment, but any time we find ourselves in will have both challenges and opportunities.  Plans fail when they don't take into account the changing tides of life around us.  What if instead of trying to control the world we planted the seeds of what we love where we are?  What if we concentrated on tending the seeds that sprouted?  What if we paid attention to which seeds sprouted and under what conditions, so that we became better cultivators of the gardens of our life?  When we plant a seed we don't keep digging it back up to see if it is growing, we have to let go and trust that life will unfold.  So I would ask that in the coming months you plant a few seeds and trust that some of them will germinate in their own time.

Peace and Blessings,
Thomas Mooneagle

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