Fall 2018

FALLING FORWARD… Of Stumbling Blocks and Stepping Stones

 

fall image

When the sun disappears below the edge of the distant corridors of our hemisphere, and we are left with the darkness of night, it begins its journey across the sky of the other hemisphere of our world. Sunrise… sunset, daylight… night time. Our Earth turns on its axis, and it moves in a never-ending rotation around its Sun. As a result of this dynamic, we have day and night, and the four seasons that function as the impetus for growth and change among all the inhabitants of the magnificent globe we call home.

The interchanges between day and night, light and darkness, heat and cold, growth and decline, the seasons of abundance and those of dormancy, are in essence parables that can teach us lessons about the dynamic oppositeness of life. This oppositeness keeps our lives in a state of balance and is reflected in the experiences of joy and sadness, ups and downs, & hope and despair. The challenges of these opposing states of being can serve as opportunities for our growth. They present to us information about the yin and yang that are essentials in the cultivation of a balanced existence.

Our anxieties about change cause us to sometimes describe our experiences in terms that are in fact unrelated to the truths of the real dynamics of cosmic reality. The discomforts of our fears are real, but so also is the fact that our lives are held in a sustainable equilibrium by the inherent tensions of a dynamic universe. Like day and night, like Summer and Winter, these tensions are native to, and thus inseparable from the process of our ever-unfolding lives. To state this truth as matter-of-factly as I do is not to be unsympathetic to the dilemma some face in the oh so uncomfortable moments of change. Rather, my intention is to bring to our attention the necessity to cultivate the courage that growth demands. Painful… yes. Gainful… absolutely.

Ultimately it becomes necessary to embrace the discomforts of our existence because they are the planks on which we will build foundations of hope… hope that is, for a more durable life. When our chests and stomachs become full with the anxieties that are characteristic of the discomforts of change, let us find space in them also for the possibility that something new, something good, something positively different will emerge.

Beyond the darkness that finds us at the end of our tethers on certain days, we can look forward to a better future. That future is to be anchored on the platforms we build when we cultivate the courage to let go of the assurances of a beaten and unproductive path. By letting go of such, we affirm and embrace new challenges that embody the potential to grow us into more substantial persons.

Because of the inevitable stumbles we will experience in this life, we can fall forward toward new and more promising futures. We are all prone to some innate fragilities. These are at times expressed as a kind of hardness… the kind of hardness that some may perceive as a self-defeating intransigence. More aptly though they are expressions of an unwillingness to let go of failing systems of thought and behavior in our lives.

Some of us cling to the evil we know even in the face of the disasters they portend. This is unfortunate and has led many to tragic ends. We can find the strength we need to build the new futures that beckon. This strengthening comes when we anchor ourselves to an unyielding determination to move forward despite the vulnerabilities that we are all subject to as a fact of our humanity.

Beyond the challenges of our common humanity, which we sometimes posit as the reasons for every awkward fact about our lives together, we can develop the ability to see that which is Divine in ourselves and in one another. That which is Divine in us is everything about us that is worth honoring. Included in this everything are the Rights that we can justly claim as universal features of our humanity. These are listed in the 30 Articles of the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights.

Speaking as a poet, I find myself declaring that we are God-like. We create our world. We separate light from darkness. We call forth order out of chaos. We name our offspring and every other creature around us, thus defining their nature and outlining their purpose. The empty spaces in our lives that yearn to be filled are often definitively addressed in the process of falling forward… scary as that may be. What some see as stumbling blocks in their path are viewed as stepping stones in the perspective of lives re-viewed from a place of courage.

To those who develop the ability to embrace the truly precarious nature of our existence and to not shrink in the face of this fact, a more abundant future is… inevitable. Yes… Inevitable!

One Love!

R. A. G.
Roy Alexander Graham
President/CEO, FIGTREE ENTERPRISES, INC.
Copyright 2018 Figtree Enterprises, Inc.