The Both/And-ness of Life

"You are the captain of your ship ... the co-creator of your life ... YOU get to choose how to live, and where ... YOU get to determine the course of your experience ... Your thoughts create your reality ... KNOW what you want, and GO for it ... make it happen ... name it and claim it ... Grab that brass ring ... emPOWER yourself ... you are the ONLY one standing in your way ... you have ENDless options!"

"There is a divine plan, and you are bound by it ... Let go ... TRUST ... Relaaaaaax ... Go with the flow ... Don't resist (what you resist, persists) ... Your beliefs determine your life-course ... you don't have a choice, or a say ... you can only choose how to respond to what Life brings you ... Everything is valid and required ... accept ... embrace ... allow ... let go of the oars and go downstream ..."

Ooooookay ...!  Which is it?!?  Which is truth?  Reality?  How life works?

And isn't this just a modern-day rehashing of the perpetual Free-Will vs. God's Will debate?

(I could never decide on THAT one, either.)

I am lousy at debates ... I sit there, take in the arguments, on both sides, and it's like a game of mental ping-pong ... "THAT one has truth ... oh, wait, THAT other one has truth, to ... wait, that was a great point ... oh, dang, that was *also* a great point ... uh-huh ... uh-huh ... yup ... yeppers ... mmmhmm ... oh yeah!"  Great workout for the neck muscles, with all that up-and-downing, and back-and-forthing ... but not so good for arriving at conclusions... (& I'm wondering ... are conclusions the point...?  or is it an exercise designed to stretch my perspective ...?).

The deal is, I see truth EVERYwhere ... or at least some truth ... something that rings true ... something that agrees with me, inside ... that makes my inner-jumper leap with re-cognition (remembering, or re-membering with what I knew before ... and went and forgot).  So, I cherry-pick truths ... and connect truth-dots.  Sorta like creative sacred geometry ... if it zings with my soul, it's truth-for-me.

But ... what about the conundrum at the top of this page?  WHICH is truth?  Because they sure 'nuff *seem* to be polar opposites ...!

What if ... what if it takes polar opposites to contain a truth, any truth?
What if ... what if every truth consists of a dance of a divine dichotomy?
What if ... what if they're BOTH true...?

(I mean, c'mon ... the universe, and your own body, wouldn't exist without both expanding and contracting ...)

What if ... yeah, no iffing about it ... I am again, always, forever, a both/and girl.

What zings most-true in my core-being, is that there IS a divine plan ... and that *I* am part of it (but I went and forgot).  That it IS all valid and required (no mistakes, nothing wasted, nothing unnecessary, nothing to screw up) ... AND I need to relax and trust ... AND it's all right on time ... AND I get to choose how to respond ... AND I get to act in ways that feel most-true, and dismiss all that which insults my soul.

What if life is like a cruise ship ... we're all on it ... we're all going in the same direction ... and we WILL safely dock.  However ... while ON that cruise, we each have endless choices ... to stay in the cabin, or venture out ... when/where/what/how-much to eat ... with whom we shall schmooze ... whether to relax alone, or dance wildly ... whether to get wet, or stay dry ... when and how long to sleep ... how we spend our time ... and whether or not we take the time to feel connected to the "captain" (notice how the captain keeps winking ..?).  We even have the choice as to whether we will hate the ride, or fully enJOY it ... and yeah, we can abandon ship ... but then we'll just be dragged along ...

(Admittedly, it ain't a perfect analogy, but y'get my drift ...?)

So ... all that to say, I am going to participate with these seemingly divergent-urges to both RELAX and EMPOWER myself ...

Stand back ... it could get messy.