Maya Beiser- World to Come
Thought of the day: Could your life have turned out any other way? Are you leading the life you're meant to?
Today's song is another by Maya Beiser: World to Come. I'm prescribing another violin/cello piece for Thoughtful Thursday in hopes of sparking the Mozart Effect to help us in our quest for an answer.
I'm an introspective person and often my mind is swimming with questions, thoughts and ideas (nothing useful I assure you.) Being raised catholic, you're instilled with this idea of a soul and a God, and in my absent mindedness I think I tuned out what they thought it all was supposed to mean. So instead I've come up with my own theories, which are nothing new, but make sense to me.
I like to think a lot about if I could have been anything different but not in a dwell in the past, should've said no kind of way. It's more about imagining you're 75,80, 100 and realizing you're life could've only gone one way: the way it did. It followed a path for better or for worse. You made decisions, you built your character, you walked in the shoes you were given, and now I am here. And is here my fate? My destiny? In a sense yes, because it has to be, because there is no other here.
What's point of wondering "if she only said yes" or "if they only liked my idea" or "if only I had made a little more money"? I think the past and the future are set in stone. (Unless you create a time machine/alternate universe portal. Then this theory isn't relevant.) So what does that mean? Are we not in control? Well, you tell me. If you were to stand still right now and watch life go by, is that who you were destined to be? Or were you destined to be the person that sees a chance and leaps at it? Maybe you miss and maybe you never try again or maybe you land and still don't get what you want. Or maybe you miss and try again and again until you do get everything you ever wanted.
But how am I supposed to know which one I am!?
I think we have to accept our deepest fear, which isn't realizing that some people don't amount to their own standards. I think our deepest fear is realizing there are no standards. We worked day in and day out to buy iPhones laptops, steak dinners and then what? For someone to tell us in the end "Well done, you beat the average" Average What? I would hope the point of my life is to be able to smile at the end when I finally begin reflecting. That's it. But how to live that kind of life.
By doing the only thing we can; being present, in the moment and honest with ourselves. When we do that we can, understand who we are and not worry about where we're going, what we have (or don't have) or who we "should" be. Doing something every day that reflects who we hope we are. Not daydreaming about the weekend and going on autopilot until it's here and also not planning every moment of the next 5 years or dwelling on the last 5. Be right in the middle: right now. no, now. Now!
I think all we can do is live here and now, let life and "the plan" reveal what it may. That's when we'll see the "World to Come." (Full circle- back to the song...nice!)
