The only way that your life's journey can be fulfilling is to appreciate the process along the way. Appreciate being part of the universal process and at the same time appreciate that you are aware of being part of it. Who or what ever promised you, I or anyone, that we would live even for one minute? Once we have lived for two minutes, what a miracle it is.
The way to enjoy the process without losing your ambition is simple but needs plenty of reaffirming. Appreciate the biggest miracle that you can think of - yourself. You are living in the best dream imaginable - the dream of life. Remember the MIRACLE of your eyesight. Spend five minutes a day walking aroung wherever you are with your eyes closed. Even when you run into something, do not open your eyes, act as if you no longer had the gift of vision. Remember this poem: "They say the sky is a pretty blue; They say the grass is a pretty green. But what is blue and what is green.....to a person who has never seen?" Remember the miracle of being able to taste whatever food you really relish. I know people who have lost the gift of taste. They have to eat but can no longer taste ANYTHING. Kind of unimaginable, isn't it? Some are born without feet, arms or legs. Remember Helen Keller? Born blind, deaf, and unable to speak. Almost unimaginable isn't it?
A friend of mine was paralyzed when he was 12 years old. The only thing he could move was his eyes. Even though he was paralyzed, he still could feel if someone touched his skin or if the wind blew across his hair. He just could not move any of his muscles other than his eye muscles. By the time he was 25 years old, he had regained the ability to walk with the aid of two crutches. Have you ever seen someone walk down the street with crutches and jerked from side to side always seeming like he or she was falling except for the two crutches they used to keep their balance? This was him. I asked him one day, "what was the worst thing about being paralyzed for 15 years?" You will never guess what he told me. He said, "The worst thing was having an itch and not being able to scratch it or even being able to tell someone where to scratch my itch". I get an itch myself every time I relate this story. He could not move his muscles but he could feel an itch and he had to bear through the itch until it went away on its own. How horrible an experience. Imagine your worst itch and never being able to scratch it - for ten years. Just try to ignore an itch and see how many itches seem to pop up all over your body.
I used to complain when I stubbed my toe. Then I started being thankful that I had a toe to stub and eyes to see where I was going so I would not stub my toe again.
I had a 95 year-old uncle once that I used to help dress, feed and clean. He told me once that that the older you get, a good bowel movement is a part of paradise.
Truly recognize and appreciate all the miracles that you already possess. Appreciate the miracle that you are. Know that your future contribution to the universe is in the musical field, the sports field, the political field, the restaurant and catering field or whatever field is in your heart. Know that everything that exists, exists for the contribution it can make to the universal process. When you truly appreciate the miracle that you are and the miracles that you possess that make all dreams possible, then you will see your life's journey for the magnificent adventure that it is. When we see our life as the miraculous journey that it is, then we will desire to contribute to the universal source of our life that we call God through dedicating our life here on planet earth to that contribution. The moment we appreciate the miracle of our personal existence is, at his moment we are turning the key to the door of paradise itself.
APPRECIATION = The key to paradise.
