We are all on our own journey in and through life. Like Bilbo Baggins and many others, we all get to go on an adventure if we so choose. Depending on how you look at it, each and every day can be its own adventure of sorts. Really, each and every moment can be. Nowadays, I think of life in lanes. We are each putzing along doing our own things in our own personal lane. Life can be so good, possibly even great, when we stay in our lane. Many problems arise, in my opinion, when we try to step out of our own personal lane or when others try to step into our lane. I think of these events as bad overextensions, overreaching beyond the limits of our lane. We always still have our own choice, though. We can protect our lane and encourage others to stay out of it, and we can also work on being more mindful of respecting the lanes of others in order to not overextend as well.
I am not here to tell you how to live your life. I am busy enough trying to figure out how to best live my own life from my own lane. I do not intend any offense there, but, in my opinion, your lane is for you to figure out. I enjoy my lane and all that it provides me. Therefore, what I choose to do from my lane is offer a number of sugjestions. This site contains a lot of my thoughts about what I think works well for a life well-lived. You can agree, or you can disagree. That is your choice from your lane. I choose to work on this passion project (and hopefully many more down the road [get the pun? ;)]) from my lane. After all, you are in your lane reading this page now because you chose to do so, right?
How bumpy is your lane? How much turbulence/trouble is in your life? You may be thinking about here and now. I truly hope that, here and now, there is nothing but peace for you (and perhaps a few questions starting to pop up). Honestly, I would love it if any of my words here give you some pause to make you stop suddenly in the tracks of your lane. Maybe you need to slow down a bit, think some more, and challenge at least a few of your conceptions for your life and your lane (or perhaps at least the lanes of others). Once again, honestly, I hope you find peace. When I asked the first query at the start of this paragraph, I was questioning how bumpy your lane is in your rear-view mirror. Is it very bumpy like mine, or is it smooth and flawless? I think I already know the answer… :)
I will not say that I know the answer, though, because I do not and I choose to avoid the mistake of making a false assumption right here and right now. That is a bump in my lane that I am not making, and that is really nice in my opinion because it means I now have one less bump to iron/steamroll out later. I already have enough bumps in my lane to work on as it is. I still have so much work ahead of me to do. Do you know what, though? I love that thought because I love putting in the work. I love choosing to show up and reflect on the bumps in order to figure out how to be smoother moving forward. As a result, I am figuring out how to be the best version of me that I can possibly be. Right now, I am not sure what that means for me and my future. I do not think that is the point. The point, in my opinion, is to be better than I was and to be better eventually than I am. Maybe you are not going to buy into this idea as fully as I have, but I choose to share it in case it does help anyone else out there, too. We are not alone. We have each other. We also each have our own lane, and it is up to each of us to enliven it as we each see fit.
As far as protecting our lanes is concerned, I believe in establishing healthy boundaries, in setting up effective guardrails to govern ideal human/natural interactions among us. Personally, I have discovered great joy and power within these parameters. I offer them here and now to each and every one of you as some of my favorite sugjestions to start.
To finish a final thought that circles this topic back to the beginning, let us please form a fellowship. Let us go on an adventure together! If we both so choose (and I certainly do), let us move our lanes forward together, side-by-side, as best we can, as long as we can.