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| Closed for Business |
Several years ago I had the good fortune of reading Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning". If you you've not read this and enjoy reading my blog, I highly recommend it. While the book relates his concentration camp experience, it actually reveals more. In the process of surviving the horrific ordeal, Frankl discovers his purpose: writing a book.
Regardless of what brutality he endures during the ordeal, he sustains his belief that it was his destiny to complete and publish his book. That belief he recounts kept him alive while others allowed themselves to succumb to the physical tribulations. Frankl concludes that the key to survival is finding and living one's purpose.
Early on as I started blogging, I deliberately called my blog "The Daily Journey". By design, I didn't call it the Daily Journal. No, I felt then, as I do now, that I am on a journey. While it's been one hundred and fifteen blogs since then, I am beginning to understand what my purpose is on this journey.
I am compelled to communicate and create. This is who I am. I am an imperfect work in progress who has elected to share his thoughts along the journey. By opening up and probing my own thoughts, I challenge you to let go of your fears and do the same. The key to personal growth rests in mine and your hands. We control our own destiny, it is not by chance or fate. We were born with intelligence. How we use it is our discretion.
Since March, I've been trying to find what really drives me. Searching for my own happiness has lead me full circle to where I started. The answers have always been within reach. In fact the answers have been inside me. My writing, my creativity, my photography, and my business skills will all serve me well.
This brings us to what we commonly refer to as "faith". Faith however without action is pointless. If you believe in something, you ultimately have to act on it. Knowledge is simply not enough to get you there. Nothing happens just by thinking about it.
At this stage of my journey, I recognize that it is time to take my knowledge and act on it. Most of you already know, I am a thinker. Unfortunately, I am also a ruminator. I play the same scenarios over and over. Like photography, composition is great, but you still have to take the shot, develop it and print it. There's the physical component of acting. You can think about it all you want, but you have to take the camera out of its holster and shoot the son of a bitch.
Every word, I've published, I've lived and I believe. I've not told you anything that I've not experienced or tried. We help each other out along the journey. There are no GPS coordinates along the way. Listen to omens, let your senses experience what you feel. Listening to your heart may be the best gift you have ever received. Find what sustains you and makes life meaningful to you.
Al, this is rather surreal for me. You have noted that we have similarities. I could have written this. Not the way you did as we approach things differently. However I share your prose of thought.
ReplyDeleteIt is important to act. To stop ruminating and just do it. I know that I have lost a bit of my faith in many things. I wrote about it and called it "Faith." Regardless, I have to get past that and do it. Only then will my faith come back to me.
Thank you for these words.
Simply put: believing is not enough. We are called to act. Faith is belief in action. Believe in yourself and act.
ReplyDeleteAl, thanks for the reply. You're right that we are called to act, to do, to be. I do believe in myself and act strongly for me. However I would be delusional to dismiss that which I know I feel. Accepting it and expressing it doesn't diminish me in the least.
ReplyDeleteI noted I have lost faith in many things, things that I question. Maybe I should have been clearer with that, but I've never lost faith in myself. It is that which is inside me that is my fuel and enables me to have accomplished all that I have and all that I still will.