Do you sometimes say something and, upon reflection, you think “wow, that was great!”  Of course you do.  I’m just reminding you how smart you are.

I think of things that I have heard from family, friends and strangers, and how many times I have said to folks, “Did you hear what you just said?”  That has proved valuable in times of growth, vulnerability, pain and joy for those to whom I have been listening.  

Today I explained to someone a clarity of direction for me that is renewing a very scrappy attitude blended with irreverence and urgency to help me make some things happen.  I enjoy this feeling and method of doing business.  I said, “I am not riding a wave, this is a tide.” 

Wow, that was great!

Any changes that come into our lives—be they from trauma or self-examination, significant event or sublime inspiration—are transitory.  Such is life.  That is both beauty and handicap.  Things can enter wave-like or tide-like.  My point when I conveyed the thought about waves and tides is that I sense that what is happening for me, particularly my comfort and confidence in challenging some sacred cows, is not a short-lived wave of energy but a slower moving, more persistent changing of levels…a tidal shift.  I don’t feel crests and valleys and crashing and froth; I feel a persistent change and influence that is affected by various factors (but I don’t think the full moon will matter for this!).

I believe that it is important that we stay attuned to the changes, growth patterns, self-pruning (there is value in low tides, too, to completely mix metaphors on you) and influences in our lives.  Ride the waves, transform with the tides.

Among mere mortals, the only person you can or should count on…is you.  Such has been the lessons of poets and scribes and philosophers and lyricists for a long time.  Must be true.  It is.

We are taught to count on one another, but we are also told trained up in “rugged individualism.”  I believe that humanity was created to be of service and companionship to each other for greater purposes, but at the end of the day, the only person to count on is you.  You are the root of your attitude, your resilience, your talent and your complexities.  To have expectations of others causes varieties of misery and sadness when they are unmet, either intentionally or unintentionally.  There is a bright side to that reality:  you have what you need to make the decisions you must to be resilient to life and be happy despite the ups and downs.

You have what you need:  you and life.

In my younger years, I used to tell my friends “As long as we’re breathing, we have another chance.”  If you are breathing, you have a chance to today to have the joy and happiness and fulfillment that you seek.  Don’t let any other person dissuade you.