One of my favorite books is Richard Bach's "Jonathan Livingston Seagull." Jonathan loves flying more than constantly scrambling for food like the other gulls. The book speaks to me because we are all unique individuals who occasionally feel not at all "remarkable," but more like an oddball among our flock of co-workers, friends and family. The question we must ask ourselves is, "Will I give in to group thinking and expectations or express the singular purpose calling me from within?"
"Why is it," Jonathan puzzled, "that the hardest thing in the world is to convince a bird that he is free, and that he can prove it for himself if he'd just spend a little time practicing? Why should that be so hard?" Pushing back on our limitations sends strong, intentional, loving roots deep into the bedrock of our self-acceptance. Finding the courage to be unique and different from the flock, is not always easy; but, only then can we grow upward and begin to soar.
"He (Jonathan) spoke of very simple things--that it is right for a gull to fly, that freedom is the very nature of his being, that whatever stands against that freedom must be set aside, be it ritual or superstition or limitation in any form." Jonathan is pointing out that we seldom live up to our highest potential. Instead, we fall back into the comfort of flock expectations where we are accepted, but not truly happy or fulfilled.
He goes on to explain to the eager, young gulls that those who exceed the flying limits of flock belief are not more special or gifted. "The only difference, the very only one, is that they have begun to understand what they really are and have begun to practice it."
Settling or soaring, that is the question!
Are you ready to understand and appreciate who and what you really are and then practice it? If so, email me at SWELLSLTC@gmail.com.
There is more to life than just squawking with the flock!
