To live a life uncommon. But don’t we all strive for that? To make a mark, to “be something”, to be extraordinary.
Not everyone. Does that surprise you? It shouldn’t. Look around. So many people are content to sit and wait. Wait for an answer about the purpose of life. Seek it around them in nature, in religion, in relationships that ultimately don’t satisfy and do more harm than good.
To be something. That requires an unlimited amount of perseverance with the ability to accept certain failure and still continue in the direction you want to go. You have to want it because in the wanting of something, we work to achieve it. Imagine a man falling in love with a woman. The man must make her love him or else all is lost.
But don’t drop out of the race like a lover scorned or a lover satiated. Continue on. It is in the continuing that you find what ultimately was meant to await you, because you actively pursued it NOT because it happened to land in your way. Value the time it takes to get there, learn from the lean times, the mean times and cherish with a childlike rapture the moments when things are their very best. Remember, the ups and downs are the only permanent part of life so embrace the constant swell.
Never stop.
Stop when you’re dead. And maybe not even then.
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No, it doesn’t surprise me at all (about people not stopping to notice things, for lack of a better phrase.) It doesn’t surprise me because I’m”uncommon” too. If by “uncommon” you mean those people whom don’t “sit around and wait”. Ups and downs, failures, they are all one side of the same coin, and it’s all in how one reacts to adversity. Success, happiness, love, spirituality come from within. You are too right that so many seek these things through externalities (i.e. basing happiness in a relationship when that has nothing to do with the relationship, per se, cuz it starts with oneself.) If one is true to oneself, true to their hopes, dreams, aspirations, and feelings, and live a life defined by altruistic action, an ethic of service (it’s the rent we pay for living), then happiness has already found you. And yes, never stop, because life is growth and growth is life (the cliche, life is suffering). If you can accept that the world runs on conflict not on peace, and that there is good and bad conflict and for which there’s no value applied cuz it’s just life. I hope this stream of conscience speaks to some of what you are getting at. Anyway, what you said really resonated with me. Time to go make some Stumptown and wake up. Enjoy the sunshine on this gorgeous Sunday!