Fate & Free Will

FATE & FREE WILL:

Our lives are like circus performers balancing on two speeding horses, one foot is on the horse called FATE and the others on the horse called FREE WILL. So... everyday we ask,  “which horse is which?” Which horse do I need to stop worrying about becasue it is not under my control and which do I need to steer with concentrated effort?  I was born fated as a child to Ann and Gene, not an heir to a fortune, not a gifted singer or actor. I chose free will to become an artist after much study, but I waited after my children were partially grown to expand my budding talents. I was not gifted with amazing talents, just a penchant for it.  There have been certain lottery tickets I can purchase to increase my odds of finding contentment. And here is the truth: I can decide now how I spend my time with, whom I share my body and life and money and energy with. I can select what I eat and read and study. I can choose how I am to regard unfortunate circumstances in my life, whether I am to choose to see them as curses or opportunities. I can choose my words and thoughts and how I speak to others. I can choose my own thoughts. My job on my journey is to keep searching for the metaphors, rituals and teachers that help me move closer to divine effort. In this journey, I am to place my fate as an artist in destiny because I am on this path to learn all I can in my own concentrated effort. Destiny is a relationship between divine grace and willful self effort. Half of it, you have no control over and half of it is in your own hands. Your actions will show measurable consequence. Man is neither entirely a puppet of the Gods, nor is he entirely captain of his own destiny. He is a little of both. Staying centered is one thing I have learned to be as an artist and a teacher/writer. Imagine that the universe is a great spinning engine. You want to stay near the core in the center of the wheel, not out at the edges all frayed and crazy. The hub of the calmness is were your heart is, that is where your god or goodness lives within you... in the center. So I have stopped looking for answers in the world. I just keep coming back to that center where I find peace. It is usually in front of my easel where I find that what we humans call God is bigger than our limited doctrines have taught us. 

I know people who as they are aging have turned to their art because the are longing to have something to believe in that is only theirs. First they have to get out of that world that careens about in a series of wild and devastating lurches. They must believe in the journey...accept that it will be long suffering to get mastery of thier craft. No matter what our age is, it is the beginning of an new episode in life. A journey, however long, is good thing!