Driving along the expressway last week, I was amused for probably too long, by a large plastic lid rolling between the lanes. It was trapped between two lanes of traffic motoring along at 100 kph being buffeted and kept upright by the air flow of the cars. It just couldn't escape and was quite funny I thought. On and on it rolled with the relentless traffic. It was going at an amazing speed, rolling, rolling, jumping and rolling, forever gathering momentum. Eventually I drove past it and saw in my rear view mirror that it just kept going. It made me smile and I sympathised with its plight saying out loud, "Poor lid". Hang on...it's a lid, a plastic lid!
As always there was a message in the mundane. This plastic lid suddenly reminded me of how I had once been caught up in life and driven along for what felt like an eternity by the flow of other people. Kind of like being picked up by the momentum of the crowd at a tube station and before you know it you're on the tube, the doors are closed and you're on the way to who knows where. No matter how much I jumped or tried to get out of the way, the push and pull of others kept me trapped on a relentless path. Buffeted by thoughts, actions, words, assumptions, expectations and fears, I went careening through much of my life on a road I didn't want to be on. I then realised something. I wasn't sympathising with the plastic lid, I was empathising! I could see me as being the plastic lid!
We have all gone along with things in our lives for whatever the reason, and for some people that may mean peace and happiness, but if like I did, you have a voice inside screaming at you "this is not what you want", then something needs to change, for everyone's sake. Here's what I learned from my time as a plastic lid. Don't wait. There will never be a right time and there will never be a right place. The ducks will never all be in a row before you make the jump. There will always be one more excuse. Christmas, birthdays, sickness, holidays, car trouble, doctors appointments, bills to pay, school to finish, dinners to sort, house to clean, diet to start...on and on it goes. Before you know it, a year has passed, then another, then another. There will never be the right time. My advice to you is to jump. Jump into the unknown. Jump while you have the spirit, the thoughts, the dreams and the music still inside of you. Don't become a plastic lid stuck on the highway to hell. By the time you come to a stop you will be too worn out, too dizzy, too frayed and too scared to pick yourself back up again.
As James Roberts says in the Nature of Personal Reality, "you are given the gifts of the gods; you create your reality according to your beliefs. Yours is the creative energy that makes your world. There are no limitations to the self except those you believe in". Believe in and follow your own desires rather than those created for you or dictated to you if they are in such stark contrast to what you want. Find your voice, find your courage and follow your hearts desires. Make every day count and thank every plastic lid you see on your travels as they remind you never to roll to anyone's beat but your own.