On desire, expectation, and allowing life to surprise us.
Without Writing The Ending
There is something almost amusing about the way we make plans for our lives, particularly our inability to do so without writing the ending. We decide what we would like, give it a shape, dress it in all the proper details and, before anything has actually happened, become quite attached to the arrangement. We imagine the house, the work, the person, the journey, perhaps even the conversation in which everything finally falls beautifully into place. Life, meanwhile, has made no such agreement.
We are wonderfully imaginative creatures, creating stories within our minds and becoming attached not only to what we desire, but to the story we have created around it. In doing so, we can limit ourselves by placing conditions on what is possible. When we get out of our own way and allow life to unfold without deciding what it must become, we begin to discover just how much beauty exists beyond what we had imagined.
When choosing the botanical for this journal I chose Rosa rugosa for Her beauty and for the little stings that come when we are not fully present. Her thorns have a clever way of returning our attention to where we are, while Her flowers offer every reason to linger there. She reminds us to pause long enough to savor what is here, and quite literally, to smell the flowers.
Nature has such a magical way of showing us beauty. I have always found being in nature soothing for my soul, but it is also where so much of my inspiration begins. A flower, the changing light, the movement in the air and discovering little treasures along the way. Seeing Rosa rugosa in the wild is breathtaking.
Emerging Life
As I move into an emerging life, I pause and reflect on how nature emerges and evolves. Nature never seems concerned with knowing what comes next. It simply responds to what is present. Perhaps there is something to be learned from allowing our own lives that same freedom.
Imagine having the freedom to choose with discernment, what you invite into your life. The freedom to breathe and be exactly as you are. Perhaps part of the beauty of being here is allowing the soul to have the fullness of its human experience.
I wonder how many blessings we miss because we have already decided what a blessing should look like. When we release our attachment to a particular outcome, we leave room for something we could have never planned. What arrives may not resemble what we asked for, yet it may hold exactly what we need to experience.
What if the blessing is what changes us? We may enter an experience believing what we hope to receive from it, only to discover that its greatest offering was something we could never have anticipated. Maybe it changes the way we see ourselves, awakens a desire we had forgotten, or asks us to reconsider something we once believed to be true. The experience may end, the person may leave, or the dream may take another turn, yet something within us is no longer the same.
Leaving Room for Life
Perhaps one of the loveliest freedoms we can give ourselves is to leave a little room for life to breathe. Room for what we could not have anticipated, for the unexpected turn that changes our direction, and even for the experience that looks nothing like the one we had hoped for. When we loosen our attachment to the particular result, we are not giving up our desires. We are simply allowing for the possibility that life may know another way of bringing us what we may need.
Maybe this is the life I am learning to live now. To have desires without them having to become promises, to make choices without needing to know where they will lead, and to trust what arrives without immediately deciding whether it belongs. There is something beautiful in surrendering and allowing life to just be experienced. A slower, conscious and more intentional way of living.
Perhaps a beautiful life is not one in which everything unfolds as we imagined, but one in which we remain curious enough to meet what comes. To notice what is here, to receive what is offered, and to allow ourselves to be changed by experiences we could never have planned.
There will always be things I hope for, and dreams I would love to see come to life. I simply no longer wish to tell life how they must arrive. I would rather leave a little room for surprise, wonder, and for all that I cannot see. The story is still being written and I think I would like to be surprised by the ending.
Until we meet again, may this bring a smile to your heart.
With love and a little wonder … Jubetsy
Listen to this week’s collection
This journal entry is woven into this week’s episode of An Invitation Within. It sits alongside my letter for the collective, our teacher from nature, Rosa rugosa, and the threads I’ve shared throughout the week. Together, they become one message, read in my own voice.
