We have to find a way to live in both places. One place is called the here and now. This is where the bills are always due, the oil has to be changed regularly, you gotta brush & floss every day, get your teeth cleaned every six months or else get cavities, and the Internet sometimes goes out while the router resets itself.
In the here and now, dust bunnies collect on every surface and under every piece of furniture, even when you feel like you just dusted the day before. Taxes are due. People are not always happy with you. You say the wrong thing and more people are not happy with you.
You have to choose the right foods to eat. The right ways to move your body, the right ways to cover your body, the right things to do with your body and the way in which you present your body to the world (including the words you say with your mouth).
You have to think about all these things in the here and now plus a million more.
But there is another land. One that we often straddle the fence in (if we're lucky). It is called the world of possibilities.
In the world of possibilities anything is possible. Everything is there because anything is possible in this world. It's like if the here and now were able to be contained in a shoe box, the world of possibilities would be the ocean.
We're so stuck in our own little shoe boxes with our own little trinkets and things that we've collected, including our perspectives and the baggage that we carry that we really do forget that there is a whole big ocean of possibility out there.
And it's all ours for the taking. Of course every possibility is not meant for us. But that's okay because there are plenty of wonderful things that were meant just for each of us. All of these wonderful things are just bobbing along out there in the ocean in the world of possibility and we get to jump in and collect them.
But while we're stuck in our little shoe boxes, it can be hard to remember that world is still out there.
There are some people who live just in the shoe box, always focused on the here and now, always striving for their five year plan or their 10 year plan, or just making it through that one day, til 5 o'clock quitting time. Surviving.
But so much of what we could experience would be different if we were willing to embrace the idea of possibility.
In the world of possibility, we can be our true selves.
Do we have to straddle the fence? I feel like in order to have dual citizenship, we must really exist some in both worlds. Because if we just stay in one world all the time then we miss out on what the other world can offer us.
Completely neglecting the here and now doesn't seem like the best option, because that might mean the bills don't get paid or there are no clean clothes to wear, or plaque builds up because we haven't been to the dentist in ten years.
But I like to think that completely neglecting the world of possibilities can be even more detrimental to us. If you're just stuck inside the shoe box rolling a little marble around in your hand because it feels comfortable and you recognize it and it feels safe and secure, then you're probably going to miss out on all the things that were meant for you.
Not things that you have to go out and take from someone else but things that are out there just floating along with your name on them. Because there's enough for all of us.
