We Have All Been Placed-Daily Meditation-September 13, 2022
Today’s quotation:
We have all been placed on this earth to discover our own path, and we will never be happy if we live someone else’s idea of life.-James Van Praagh
Today’s Meditation:
This is possibly the most important warning that we can receive, as long as we pay attention to it. Are we truly being our authentic selves, searching out our own roads for our own journeys, or are we living our lives based on what we think other people expect from us and of us?
What do other people expect of us? Some things are very helpful to our communities, such as following laws and cooperating with other people. Other things, though, such as conforming to stereotypes and artificial social expectations, can be truly harmful to us as we attempt to forge and define our own identities, as we attempt to find our own, truly unique roads through life.
Robert Frost’s words “I took the road less traveled by/and that has made all the difference,” have been used often to illustrate the idea that James is talking about above. Frost didn’t say that it made his life easy or that there were no difficulties on the road he took, but he does imply that he was able to live his own idea of life rather than the idea that other people might have had in mind for him.
It’s important to keep in mind that the roads that are traveled constantly are devoid of life. The soil gets trampled down so tightly that nothing can grow there, so our journeys on those roads aren’t nearly as rich as they would be on roads that we find for ourselves. Our purpose on this planet is not to play follow the leader or to live up to other people’s expectations. Our purpose here is to become the best version of ourselves that we possibly can (to borrow a term from Matthew Kelly).
Questions to consider:
Why do so many people try to live up to the expectations of others?
What does it mean to find our own paths in life?
What indications have you seen that your own unique path may deviate from the path that you’re on right now?
For further thought:
I will not follow where the path may lead, but I will go where there is no path, and I will leave a trail.-Muriel Strode
