Uncharted

“Life is uncharted territory. It reveals its story one moment at a time"...(Leo F. Buscaglia). I love that life is uncharted territory for me now. What a cool adventure life really is when you allow yourself to be free. Many people do not believe that life is an adventure. Everywhere I travel lately, I've come across many people clearly frozen in their own pain. People's hurts and losses trap them them in an endless sea of sadness and despair. Some are caught up in their own net of anger and frustration which whirls around them and gets vented in occasional storms filled with hurtful words and endless lightening bolts of judgement. If people could just begin to see that they are not trapped at all and that their suffering is self created...then they could begin to embrace their journey versus feeling like victim's. The path of pain and suffering only brings more of the same. It truly is an infinite cycle of pain if that is what one chooses to perpetuate. Being free means gratitude, love and forgiveness. I can clearly see who is trapped and who is free, just by looking into someones eyes. The choice is always yours. While hiking today with my kids, I asked them what their three secrets to life are. My youngest said..."hiking, playing with toys and love." I adore his list because it's so true to his 5 year old perspective, yet such wisdom from such a young soul. In fact, children can teach us a lot. By the time children reach adulthood, they have been conditioned, preached to and filled with other people's distorted perspective's about reality that they forget that as children, they too believed at one time that life was an uncharted adventure waiting to be explored. Who ever said by the way that life would be pain free? Of course pain comes with the territory. We feel it, explore it and move on when we're ready. Getting stuck in our own quick sand of pain helps nobody and prevents movement. I have been stuck before and I had to work hard at getting out of my own quick sand. It wasn't easy and sometimes, I thought that I'd never get out. I never gave up and with that....I learned to never give up on myself. I asked my daughter what her three secrets to life are and she said..."trust yourself, never give up and love your family." She has learned a lot lately about never giving up. She learned how to ride a bike this summer, hiked a very tough mountain two days ago and learned how to kayak alone yesterday. Each time that she cried to give up, I pushed her to continue and she found the strength to keep going until she conquered her own fears. She is learning to trust herself more than ever. I marvel every day at the beauty life has to offer if you just open yourself up to it. If you choose to stay stuck, then okay....but know that you too can free yourself when you're ready. “Laugh at yourself, but don't ever aim your doubt at yourself. Be bold. When you embark for strange places, don't leave any of yourself safely on shore. Have the nerve to go into unexplored territory"...(Alan Alda).