“Oh, God, help me! And I walked faster, my thoughts pursuing me, and I began to run, my frozen shoes squealing like mice, but running didn’t help the thoughts to the left and right and behind me. But as I ran, The Arm, that good left arm, took hold of the situation and spoke soothingly: ease up, Kid, it’s loneliness, you’re all alone in the world; your father, your mother, your faith, they can’t help you, nobody helps anybody, you only help yourself, and that’s why I’m here, because we are inseparable, and we’ll take care of everything.“ 
~ John Fante, 

Running doesn’t help.  Sleeping, drugs or alcohol only create an illusion to make it go away for a little while.  No matter where you go or what you do, you can never get away from it. You are always there.  How many times have you said, “I just need to get away!” and you do…only to find out when you get to that “get away” place, nothing has changed but the scenery.

I don’t know about you, but lately my life has felt as if I am in the middle of a huge haboob (the word us Arizonians use for a dust storm)!  When I look in the mirror I see the same ole’ (notice I said “ole” and not “old!”) Chris but something has changed.  I look around my life and feel as if I am standing in a place where a haboob just moved through and wiped out everything in its path.  People that were in my life are gone or have changed drastically (or is it “I” that have changed?), what I used to do for my business to make money does not seem to be working anymore, my oldest child is choosing a path for her life, that although I know it is her choice, is very hard and painful for a parent to watch, and I have felt more alone lately than I ever have in my life.  What used to work no longer works and when I try to make the old work, things seem to just get worse.

So, I made a decision.  I remembered recently a conversation I had with a friend who said to me that when your life seems to be falling down around you all that means is that the finger of God has come down to touch your life…not even us humans can make that big of a mess!  In order for change to occur and new, beautiful things to enter our lives, “the old” has to go.  But we hang on for dear life…hanging onto that pole as the haboob winds toss us around screaming, “NO!  I won’t let go!”

Nothing of heavenly importance can be figured out with the human mind.  There is no logic to heaven.  If your life seems in chaos right now, rejoice!  That is a sure sign that God’s hand is in it, sweeping away the old (since you wouldn’t do it yourself because you were holding on so tight) so he can bring in the paradise and dreams you came here to experience.

So what was my decision?  To finally let go of the pole I was holding onto so tight and allow the haboob winds to take me in their arms.  Yes, there is a risk to just whipping around in the uncontrolled wind, but let me ask you this?  Trying to completely control the situation…how is that working for you?  I don’t know about you, but for me, it’s not anymore.  I choose to let God’s winds take me…take me home…take me to the next chapter in my life…wherever.  I choose to let God have my back.

“Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you, you’d walk with me all the way.  But I have noticed during the most troublesome times in my life, there is only one set of footprints.  I don’t understand why when I needed you the most you would leave me.”

The Lord replied, “My precious, precious child, I love you and I would never leave you.  During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.”
~Author Unknown, “Footprints“

Blowing in the wind,

Chris

Chris Sopa is founder and owner of Chris Sopa International, Inc. You can learn more about her at www.ChrisSopa.com. Find her at Facebook.com/ChrisSopaInternational, Twitter @ChrisSopa, LinkedIn, and Google+.

Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream.  Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily life is but a dream.

We all remember this nursery rhyme.  I honestly never really understood what it meant or when it was appropriate to sing it (seriously, how many times are you in a boat as a child?), but nonetheless, it was a popular one.  Like all nursery rhymes, as we get older we find that they have hidden and deeper meanings.  When you take them literally, they make no sense.  When you look deeper into the meaning, it all becomes clear.

Much like life, the literal usually makes no logical sense.  Me moving to Arizona for instance; logically, it seemed like the most ludicrous idea ever.  I was leaving the large business network of people I worked 8 years to build, clients, my dear friends, my two adult daughters and a life that seemed to be moving along just fine.  A few bumps here and there, but bumps make life interesting.  The 10,000 foot view (or the symbolic view); my heart has been yearning to live west for the past 5 years.  The pull has gotten stronger and stronger every day and the energy of where I was living just seemed to go stale – even though everything around me seemed to be “flowing” just fine.  Or was it?  When I looked deeper into my life, I was unhappy, working way too hard and finding it harder every day to maintain a sense of joy and wonder.

“See into life – don’t just look at it.” ~Anne Baxter, Academy Award winning actor

The best view of life is one from the nosebleed seats.  A view where we can see as much of the big picture as possible.  From that view, we can see where the pieces connect.  When our nose isn’t right to the dirt we can allow life to gently flow along as it is supposed to without needing to know all of the answers before we choose.  When we allow this flow, we merrily float through each day and find that sense of joy and happiness that we have been desperately searching for outside of ourselves.  When we finally realize that the answers we seek are in the present moments, we all of a sudden find that we are living our dream.  When we look back down the road we traveled, we see all of the synchronistic events that lead us to where we are and finally recognize the people who helped us along the way were the angels and teachers sent by God to guide us ever so gently along our stream.

Make a list today of those things in your life that bring you joy (that make you merry).  Then, make another list of those things you feel have gone stale.  The second list may be harder than you think.  We tend to have things on our “stale” list we are not yet ready to admit are stale.  Do it anyway.  Awareness is always the first step to transformation.  Do your job and then God takes it from there.

Dreaming as I gently flow merrily along my stream,

Chris

For more information about Chris Sopa International, Inc. go to www.ChrisSopa.com.

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