Wouldn’t it be easier if we just had clarity all the time? Finding it however, certainly can be elusive at times, and we wander around trying to work out what we need to do, or be, or think.

When life brings changes along – as it always will – it can be easy to feel small and lost. I have been feeling a little lost myself lately. It’s a new season for my life, and although on one hand I welcome it as a new opportunity for learning and experiencing, I have also been feeling a bit ‘lost’. This morning I woke up with that feeling looming over me and I wondered what the day ahead would bring and if I could find some answers to sate this feeling.

I’ve been reading one of my favourite contemplative thinking authors Richard Rohr again, and today I came across this quote in one of his daily contemplations.

The gift you carry for others is not an attempt to save the world but to fully belong to it. It’s not possible to save the world by trying to save it. You need to find what is genuinely yours to offer the world before you can make it a better place. Discovering your unique gift to bring to your community is your greatest opportunity and challenge. The offering of that gift—your true self—is the most you can do to love and serve the world. And it is all the world needs. —Bill Plotkin [1]

That kind of blew my mind, because Bill states it so simply. It was a moment of clarity for me right there. I don’t have to do anything today other than be myself. Me being me is what the world needs to make the world a better place. If I can go about my day (and all days) experiencing all that the day offers and being grateful for it, then I can truly offer a great gift to the world and the clarity I desire will eventually (or suddenly) come. It doesn’t have to be this big worry, or a catalyst for guilt, or an excuse for procrastination. Living in each moment is about finding the clarity I need. The clarity to be me.

Phew.

I kept reading Richard Rohr and this is what I found.

Practice: Being Lost
Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known. . . .
—David Wagoner [1]

…there is immense value in “finding ourselves lost” because we can find something when we are lost, we can find our selves. . . . Imagine yourself lost in your career or marriage, or in the middle of your life. You have goals, a place you want to be, but you don’t know how to reach that place. Maybe you don’t know exactly what you want, you just have a vague desire for a better place. Although it may not seem like it, you are on the threshold of a great opportunity. Begin to trust that place of not knowing. Surrender to it. You’re lost. There will be grief. A cherished outcome appears to be unobtainable or undefinable. In order to make the shift from being lost to being present, admit to yourself that your goal may never be reached. Though perhaps difficult, doing so will create entirely new possibilities for fulfilment.

… By trusting your unknowing, your old standards of progress dissolve and you become eligible to be chosen by new, larger standards, those that come not from your mind or old story or other people, but from the depths of your soul. You become attentive to an utterly new guidance system. . . Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation from the Centre of Action and Contemplation – Vocation – May 22nd to June 1st, 2018

Oh my goodness… That just says it all for me. I am glad I am ‘lost’ at the moment because it is opening up so many new possibilities, new ways of thinking and exciting new ways of understanding the world.

Sometimes it is NOT easy. I know that. There is certainly grief in letting go. In my current case it’s the acceptance that my body doesn’t work the way I would like it to – there are ongoing challenges. Other times, there has been such great grief that I am not sure how to hold my heart together. There was a time after the Black Saturday fires that I felt like the world had tilted on its axis and I was on the edge of falling over. But through all of the ‘lost’ my experience has also shown me that there is always something to be found, some new insight to gain, a new perspective to consider.

So being lost today is something I welcome. It challenges and encourages and uplifts me to know there is more life to experience in each and every moment.

Be Happy
Merelyn Carter

Merelyn’s writing is supported in part by the sale of her books. Autobiography - ‘The Deepest Part of Me’.  ‘Inspire’ – inspirational reflections for your life’s journey.  ‘Stories behind the Songs’ and her first children’s picture book ‘To The Moon and Back - Grandma’s Rocket Ship Adventure’. To find out more about her work and to support her through the purchase of her writings and music, please go to www.carterandcarter.com.au