Awhile ago now I had the experience of a hurricane named Michael Beckwith. I use hurricane to describe the experience because our time together was powerful, it was uplifting, it rearranged some of my thinking and it destroyed some old thought patterns that no longer serve me. He said something in his talk that was such a relief for me and something that rang so true, "we are not here to solve our problems; we are here to outgrow them."
What a relief that I don't need to figure out why my job was eliminated, how I'm going to make ends meet, why the stimulus package wasn't supported by any Republicans, how in the world will the health care crisis be solved. Michael suggested that any problem we are struggling with already has a solution, that the answer is within us. But we won't find it out there, the issues and problems I am dealing with are opportunities to go within and to go beyond my small view of myself to realize something even better. Even delays or obstacles along the way each deliver an important piece of my unique experience puzzle that will eventually complete a whole picture that I just can't see right now.
So I need to go beyond that which is directly in front of me to see something larger and bigger than what my small focus may not be allowing me to realize. It isn't about obsessing on the stimulus package or my lack of a job but rather the time I have in my life right now to find a larger definition of who I am and how I will earn the energy/money I need to realize my true potential.
I choose today to focus on how I can outgrow the obstacles in front of me to become something better and bigger than any problem in front of me now.