Is that your FINAL answer?

Haven't we all asked the question "What is the purpose of life?" We ask "Is this ALL my life is about, isn't there ANY more to it than THIS?", "WHO should I trust?", "WHAT can I do?", "WHEN will it be "my turn" for happiness?", "WHERE do I look for peace in my life?" or  even "WHY does he treat me so badly; will he ever change and respect me as I deserve"?

HOW can I cope with all of this?" 

The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning. 

Uncertainty is the very condition 

to impel man to unfold his powers.
Erich Fromm

We ALL seem to want a final answer and get "resolve" on the sometimes unresolvable issues in our lives. I think a great part of stress for me is NOT having the "final answer" but finding that I had to make decisions that affected my life POSITIVELY without all the information "that I would have liked to have had". I say it that way because, sometimes, a NON-answer CAN BE answer enough for us. If we let it be, that is. I try to ask myself and challenge you to ask yourself  

"What do I really want in (or out of) life?" 

Take a moment to listen and be inspired by this wonderful song and video:

"Everything" by Barbra Streisand 

(courtesy of www.LoveSpeakes.com)

 
If you are like me, you want happiness, health, freedom to "be who you really are" and love on a daily basis. That answer does not place any need or desire on "knowing the answer for every question" that I have in life. Isn't that funny? NOT having the answer may not affect the quality and enjoyment of my life...That is a great realization. It is not so much the end result (having the answer) that matters but HOW we learn to cope with living with uncertainty that is out of our control and realm of influence. Uncertainty can thwart our plans, slow us down or discourage us but sometimes not "having the answer" could be answer enough for us if we only ask ourselves "what do I really want?" .

If I run across a magic Genie's lamp on a beach; I know that one of my "three wishes" would NOT be to "know the answer to every question" but I would make sure that ONE wish would be that I have all that I need to live life to the fullest and "let the uncertainties be what they will".

"Uncertainty  is the only certainty there is, 

and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security." 

John Allen Paulos

If this feel that this entry was inspiring or gave you a glimmer of hope that you had not felt before; please comment or check a REACTIONS box below. Thanks.

And that has made all the difference

The poetry of Robert Frost has always spoken loudly of the human will and spirit and there has never been a poem that has impacted me as The Road Not Taken. I can actually "remember" standing at the crossroads of my life; looking down each path that lay ahead of me and asked myself,  "am I making the RIGHT decision?". I could see how someone who had gone before me might take a certain path but then I wondered; if in my life, that the other path might be better suited for me. All in all, I reason it out that we can take either path in life; of the two paths that lie before us, we do not have to worry about "taking the wrong one".

Speaking from personal experience as a survivor of verbal and emotional abuse, I can say with confidence that the path of abuse cannot be foreseen and necessarily sidetracked any more easily than we can peer down either of the roads given to us to choose from in Frost's poem. We cannot foresee what lies ahead for us in a relationship using only our eyes. We need to employ our full senses of touch, smell, taste and hearing as well as intuition in all of our relationships. The strongest sense that we have is called common sense; and if it doesn't "feel right" it probably isn't. Fear always threatens to take over our decision making but we can all find the courage needed to take the road less travelled that will make ALL the difference in our lives.

The Road Not Taken read by Robert Frost; poet.

Listen to "The Road Not Taken"; choir and orchestra

Robert Frost (1874–1963).  Mountain Interval.  1920.

1. The Road Not Taken

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;	5
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,	10
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.	15
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.	20