“You need only claim the events of your life to make yourself yours. When you truly possess all you have been and done … you are fierce with reality.” ~ Florida Scott-Maxwell
There is a person that I used to follow in Instagram that I have since unfollowed. On paper she seemed like the kind of person I would really have enjoyed knowing. She had done similar things to me in that she had followed her heart and was living a life on her terms.
But.
What she was also doing was bashing any other life; judging people who made more traditional choices than hers.
It felt yucky.
The same way it feels yucky when people get all misty-eyed when they talk to me about how I am ‘living the dream,’ while devaluing their own lives.
Their own beautiful, flawed, imperfect, messy, magical lives.
Yes, I (we) have made choices that brought us to a beautiful place, a hot place (that was a very conscious decision!), and a magical one.
But it is truly no more magical than the place we lived before. It is no more magical than the place my family lives in Canada. It is no more magical than anywhere else.
It is magical because we have decided that it is.
I never wanted this life. I did not ever put Costa Rica on a vision board. Ever. People tell me all of the time that I am ‘living the dream’, but that is not what I am doing at all.
What I am doing is not dreaming. I am actually doing everything I can to say awake.
To quote Florida Scott-Maxwell, I am “fierce with reality.” Ants and all.
I have had losses and blows and hard stuff, and thanks to that stuff I know – to my bones – that this life is rare and precious. So a few years ago I made a decision to stop being numb. I opened – widely – to Magic and Miracles. I asked for them. I welcomed them. I noticed them. I followed them. I believed in them. I participated in them. I learned to follow where they lead. And my life changed.
But first I had to find them in the life I was already leading.
Many of us are searching for something. We have been taught unease. We have been taught to want, to yearn, to feel like something is missing.
Billions can’t be made from a population who are happy and content with their lives.
Your life, right now is magical. Read that again: Your life right now is magical. Miracles happen every single day. I don’t want you to want my life, or anyone else’s life. I want you to want YOUR life. I want you to open up so widely to your life and loving your life right now that life opens up and loves you right back.
That is my dream: to have a life filled with Magic and Miracles. Not in some distant future. Now. In the middle of my messy, imperfect, beautiful, flawed life.
After I had opened to them and began trusting them, I decided to let the magic and miracles lead the way.
And they lead me here.
No vision board required.
Don’t imagine where they will lead you. Don’t try to control the magic. Just open up, notice them, look for them, believe in them, participate in them, follow them, and be ready for an amazing ride.
xo
Two years ago, Mark and I were on holiday on the island of St. Vincent, and I was moaning about the lack of local fruit available. We could have strawberries and blueberries and apples – apples?! – but there wasn’t very much tropical fruit. Apparently the bulk of their customers wanted fruit that they knew. So rather than fill the buffet with local fruit, the company would ship fruit in from Mexico and the US.