“The birth of a man is the birth of his sorrow. The longer he lives, the more stupid he becomes, because his anxiety to avoid unavoidable death becomes more and more acute. What bitterness! He lives for what is always out of reach! His thirst for survival in the future makes him incapable of living in the present.” ~ Chuang Tzu

This made me stop in my tracks. How true. How sad. Living in the moment is the only answer to truly living. We will not live forever, so finding that balance to living and loving now that will benefit generations… that is the challenge. Think on love. Explore it, ponder it, because it is complicated to the busy mind, but go after it and be challenged to know it’s true meaning in your life. xoxoxox Otherwise, I think we are all just chasing air.

sandyhibbardcreative.com

I discovered this article and had to share here on Saturday Soul.  Discovering our uniqueness is something that is important to all of us and I believe the journey we are on is leading us to that full awareness of our true selves.  How can we not accept ourselves just for who we are?  Many people struggle with that.  Some know from minute one what and who they are meant to be in this life. Others are late bloomers and discover themselves as they journey along the path, and then there are many who are too afraid to ever venture outside of what they were told they had to be.  This article is for all of us, I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.

Love and Peace,
Sandy

Find Your Individuality, Capture it’s Essence, and Let it Guide You

Each person is born unique, completely different than anyone else. There’s one baby born every second, and there’s 1,440 seconds in a day. That’s a lot of different, unique people born in one single day. Because you are special, unique and different than the baby that was just delivered on the other side of the curtain, you will be striving to harness your individuality your entire life.
It is a common pathway and an automatic response that a person will step into the world and try to discover who they are, and what it is that makes them special and different from everyone around them. The problem is, the world is going to try to make you exactly what it wants you to be. Nietzsche says “naivety is to say that ‘man is ought to be thus and thus!’” instead of each individual figuring out ones own destiny and purpose. “The Individual is, in his future, and in his past, a piece of fate, one law more, one necessity more for everything that is everything that will be.” People cannot change who you are without changing exactly what you’ve been and what has happened to you throughout your entire life. Each experience throughout life molds and contours us to help us become what we are supposed to be at the end of life’s journey.
E.E. Cummings once wrote, “to be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, day and night, to make you everybody else, means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting!” It’s hard to become yourself, and who you are supposed to be deep down in a world who is trying to make you someone you are not. We are influenced by so much in our life that sometimes I think we get so caught up in the action, the media, and the drama, so much that we forget the person deep down in our soul. We must strive to find that person so we never lose them completely. With all the obligations, responsibilities, expectations, worries, and stressors that come along with everyday life, we need to be able to find our individuality, harness it, and never let it go. It’s important to be an individual, to be unique. If each and every one of us were exactly the same, going through the exact same experiences, and if man were really supposed to be “thus and thus,” then life would be a very boring, unexciting, life full of no surprises, and just more expectations. Life should be enjoyed and explored. Find your individuality, capture it’s essence, and let it guide, direct, and influence your everyday decisions and attitudes. You are who you are for a reason and a purpose and have been molded through past experiences and trials. No one can completely change you and no one will ever know you better than yourself. Individuality is so important, harness it and keep it forever.
Article by KAYLA at The Universe of Now
The fabulous image is of Elizabeth St. Hilaire Nelson photographed by Douglas Nelson Photography