So, I pulled up at my friend’s house today, and there was a black plastic bag blowing around the garden, and I thought to myself there’s a black plastic bag…. Then I was like, hang on, that’s a black plastic bag, that shouldn’t be there, and as I went closer, it did a little dance in the breeze. As I went to pick it up the wind caught it and blew it up high in the air. I grabbed it and scrunched it up, and took it inside with me where it belonged.
Now take away the fact that my dancing black bag was litter, how often in Society are we told what we must be doing, how we must be living, what is expected of us blablabla. I understand that some of it is for our benefit, our health, our safety etc, but how often do people’s aspirations/dreams get quashed because they are slightly different. Just as the bag was reaching new heights I grabbed it. That plastic bag belonged in a drawer. Where are you told that you should be….
Gone are the days where people want to be in the same job, or even career for life. You want your own business, you can, you want to travel, go for it. I uprooted nearly three years ago for worldwide travels and have ended up living in New Zealand. I have no idea what is going to happen from here, but this is where I feel I am meant to be right now.
It is often said that happiness is not a destination, but a journey. However, how often do you hear people saying, when I just get this promotion, I will be sorted and be happy, once I have just found the right partner I will be happy…. Life is too short to live like that and be dependent on others and occasions for your happiness. Search within, we have all the tools we need, some of us just need to dig a bit deeper than others. I know I had hidden my tools really well, and finding new ones frequently!
When writing this I was on Messenger with someone talking about the fire at Mt Maunganui, and he said he remembered how he used to go “off road… make your own way to the top… no rules or defined pathways… all scratches and cuts a result of perhaps not finding the best route… or it was and just is part’n parcel of the journey”. After checking that he wasn’t hiding in the cupboard and reading my blog over my shoulder, I agreed.
Life is not all smooth sailing, even if we can’t enjoy the tough times, we can be mindful. We can learn from them and they are what makes us who we are. People ask me if I wish I had done things differently, and I say absolutely not. I would not be who I am and where I am as a person, geographically and from a personal growth perspective, if I hadn’t experienced what I have up to now and every day.
It has not been one big swimmingly happy life’s a breeze journey since being over here. However learning about me and life and STUFF has made me far more mindful and more appreciative of the here and now than I ever was before. To this friend I was messaging today, I said “gosh I really am in a weird mood today, I’m buzzing and I feel like I am a bit tipsy, but I haven’t drunk for 14 DAYS (and counting)”, and then it hit me, I think this is called happiness….
Don’t get put in a drawer. You are not a plastic bag.
