destiny and fate

Destiny is to be fulfilled. It does not show as awards, accomplishments and achievements. To fulfill your destiny is to realize your potential. To be the best of who you are born to be in this world. Therefore destiny is not a singular place, it can have degrees of fulfillment.

Fate on the other hand is all that life throws at you that appear as obstacles and distractions on your way to fulfilling your destiny.

These obstacles and distractions do not need to be perceived as a way to feel like a victim of life. As they appear, and they most certainly will, we can go through them, around them or over them and then subsequently use them as fuel to keep us motivated and focused on the realization of our true potential.

Fate and destiny are two inevitable aspects of living the life of a human in this world of duality. See them both, yet "keep your eye on the prize", that of fulfilling your destiny, your true potential.

realizing our potential

No one can walk your road of this lifetime for you. Although we are not in this world alone, we are on a solitary path. It is unique to each of us. No one can tell us exactly where our straight line is. It is up to each of us to find it.

When we observe others to whom we aspire to, those who we see as having reached their own potential or moving toward reaching that potential as a human being, it is not the details of their lives that we are looking to follow. If we do that, we only become a cheap imitation and never find our own way.

What we are looking to do is distill the principles that guide those to whom we aspire and live a life based on principle. When we live a life based on principle, there will be a foundation for the details that form our individual life. In this way we will walk strong and straight on the road to realizing our own potential.

stress

Most everyone I know wants to know that they matter. They want to know they are worthwhile. They want to be of use. The down side of this human quality is that partly due to this we experience stress. Let me explain with an analogy.

If a bridge were built that no one was allowed to cross than it is of no use. It is simply decoration or an exercise in engineering. However bridges are built for a reason, to be use. If nothing comes across the bridge, there is no stress and no wear and tear. However as soon as something comes across, there is a force which puts a strain on the bridge, stress.

Now, each bridge is built with a different weight load limit. Usually there is a sign posted. Let's say on a particular bridge there is a sign posting a load limit of 5000 pounds. If a bicycle crosses, the stress is imperceptible. However, if it is a 3000 pound car the stress is tolerable yet it does put wear on the bridge. If it is just one or two cars a day, no problem. If that increases to a constant flow of car traffic the wear and tear become more. Even within the weight load and frequency limit there is still maintenance that is going to be needed. 

Now, if a 10,000 pound truck comes across the bridge the bridge may fail or at least be in need of major repair. So for the most part a truck heavier than the weight load limit is not allowed to go across a bridge.

Using this analogy to our lives, like the bridge we all want to be of use and we each have a different weight load limit. We each can handle a different amount of stress. So it is important to know what sign you need to put out each day (since we are people and not bridges, we change each day) and only let across what we can handle.

At the same time by putting in daily effort into building up our system; physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually, we are regularly maintaining our bridge and with consistent effort we then are able to allow heavier loads to comes across with more frequency and it does not do damage.

When damage does occur we have the ability to shut down our bridge for repairs, or letting only necessary traffic across. In short, taking a break from being of use and healing ourselves so we can once again be of use.

In addition to the seen forces of the vehicles coming across a bridge there is also the unseen forces that are out of our control. The wind, rain, and perhaps the river below. A major flood can take down a sturdy bridge. The wind and rain can erode a bridge over time. Just like our lives there are many unseen forces that are not in our control. 

So in the end, stress in unavoidable. We don't look to remove it from our lives. We work on building and maintaining ourselves, limiting the amount to what we can appropriately handle to deal with the controllable stresses of life. We can then trust and have faith we will have all the strength needed so we can handle those forces and stresses that are beyond our control.

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