Life is like a rock.
Sometimes it rests on the bottom of a creek, and lets the waters smooth its rough edges. Other times it is kicked up from the soil, and tumbles down to slam onto your foot.
The last couple days of September my life was kicked off the side of a cliff, slammed into my skull, and then preceded to knock me down another cliff.
I got very frustrated with myself. I was behind with my school, I’d worked out for an hour every morning for four weeks and yet did not see nor feel any change. I was feeling quite a bit like a failure.
I still do, a little bit.
But today is October 1st.
The first of a new month in a new season. These days are the most magical days of all, and simply scream of possibilities.
New smells, new trees, new views, new books.
It is a time of new beginnings.
People say that spring is the season of new life, with a fresh start.
I’m not going to say that’s not true, but I think that it has a twin season in fall.
In fall the trees shed their similar cloaks of green and stand individual in bright shades of oranges, reds, and golds, and even some purples.
In fall you shed the skin of summer and adopt a new identity, a new truth of yourself.
It’s a time to re-evaluate who you are, and where you are going.
There are three months left in the year.
Twelve weeks.
So much can happen in twelve weeks if you let it.
October is the month to let them start.
It’s the time to decide how you are going to finish out your year.
Will you be the same person you were in January?
Will you throw off the old skin which you’ve borne, like a butterfly breaking free from its chrysalis?
Or do you need more time as you are?
I have a lot I want to accomplish before December 31st, and some of it I may not get done.
But that doesn’t matter.
What matters is that I try my hardest to finish them all, even if I don’t succeed.
As long as I try my hardest I have succeeded in something.
So that is what I must do; I must throw myself into a great pool of perseverance, and swim as best I can amid the rapids.
I must swim through each day, and take a stroke at a time, using each to accomplish something new.
Every project, every book, every word.
Every breath of life I must take and use to its fullest potential.
After all that is what life is.
A collection of breaths used for a single purpose.
Every thing takes a certain amount of breath.
Every push up, every paint stroke, every page read.
What matters the most is to decide what you’re going to create with it.
What will you make of your numbered heart beats, of your numbered breaths?
That is what October is all about for me.
Living my life to the fullest, and learning to let go of the wasted breaths of the past.
PS: Yes, I know it is October 2nd. I was unable to post this last night as planned, so you’ll just have to pretend I did 😛
The road goes on 