Limits

Greetings all,

Another week of spring moving back and forth between warm and cool, bright and overcast. This past week I have been musing on the limitations that we experience in our lives.

Now I as a practitioner of all sorts of magic and mystery crafts am expected to say screw the limits.  Rules, guidelines, what are these creatures you speak of?  However, limitations are part of our human experience.  With the death of Prince so recently grabbing the media in its distraction game, I amusingly recall some talks given by a much less well known celebrity, Kevin Smith.  He had some very interesting tales about the rock god.  His chat with his staff comes to mind when he finds out that Prince doesn't understand the word no anymore.  The example of wanting a live camel in the middle of the night in January in Minneapolis embodies this.  He couldn't see why his staff couldn't get it for him.  Now I am not  doing this to tarnish the star's memory, but just to show you how when the limits are taken away we seem to lose perspective. 

I've known individuals that have transcended most people's everyday concerns of money.  They can forget how hard it can be for people and on the far extreme of this spectrum they can be downright antagonistic.  We have public figures right now who've never had to deal with the survival issues that most people go through.  Not only that but their money gives them almost complete free reign to act without discernible consequences.  It seems as if when all limits are removed people become entirely egocentric and convinced of their own unfailing brilliance.

Limits are often painted as negative in the spiritual thought community.  I have started to differentiate limits into separate categories.  There are limits that confine who we are, keeping us from expressing ourselves and growing.  There are also limits that help give us a framework from which to define who we are.  Now the same exact limitation can be either confining or defining depending on the person.  Not only that but we may outgrow some of our limitations.  None of us keep the same limitations as we move through life: first we must be carried, then we learn to crawl, then walk, perhaps we learn to ride a bike or drive a car.  As we grow we transcend some limits, but as long as we remain human we will experience loss, pain, and death.  

So as we look at our lives and where we butt up against our limits we must continually examine whether we are confined or held lovingly in a safe place to define what we are.  We must decide which limitations we must transcend in order to more fully be ourselves.  As we do this we must also have compassion for others and their limits.  It really isn't for us to say when someone should bust through and expand into limits that are less restrictive.  We are each born with different capabilities and are further differentiated by our life experiences.  What may seem like a strait jacket to one person may feel like a warm blanket to another.

So how about you?  Are you comfortable in you limits?  Do you feel trapped, or do you use them to innovate and create yourself within those boundaries?  Are you outgrowing a limitation?  Are you throwing all restraint to the wind?  Are you a compassionate respecter of the limits of your fellow travelers.  I'll tell you what I told a client of mine recently, "Those fears, insecurities, emotional baggage, and limitations are something we all have.  Some of us are just better at hiding it from people.  Some of us use it as motivation to improve ourselves, others project blame or play the victim.  Only the Masters have transcended all limits.  We have all eternity to be a Master there is no rush." 

Peace and Blessings,
Thomas Mooneagle