Ambition

What are you ambitious about?

Or should I say, "for"?

What is it that gets you going... lights your fire... makes "your clock tick"?

We all go through seasons. Every season looks different. You never repeat the same one twice.

As a people, we have fallen into the misconception that we are supposed to have things figured out. That we have a purpose and it should be found and we should succeed at whatever it is by the time we're 22. (This is the cause of a midlife crisis.)

What if we raised our children in a different way? To view the world as a blessing. To live sustainably. To conserve. To reuse. To create. To appreciate. To sweat. To laugh until their bellies hurt.

As a people, we expect children to be children. We expect college students to be loud and irresponsible and drunk. We expect the middle aged to be conservative and quiet. We expect the elderly to be wise.

When did we forget this is a journey? When did we forget that in their few years, children have wisdom? Or that in their feverish energy, the college age community has a voice? Or that the middle aged are spontaneous and creative? Or that the elderly are spunky and sometimes foolish?

We begin to lose our souls when we define ourselves and each other by social status and the number of years we've been breathing and eating.

Too often we set off to figure out who we are... we end relationships because "who we are" is stifled... we get into a relationship because they help us understand.

I told Larry the other night that I had no idea what was coming next. He shrugged. "It'd be horrible to know what's next, don't you think?"

The other night he asked a question about ambition.

And I rambled... wishing I had an answer... knowing he saw right through my words and my frantic hand gestures.

What does it mean to have ambition?

What does it mean to know who you are?

What does it mean to know what you believe, what you think, and to act on that?

It is when we lose our ambition, when we believe we have finally "arrived", that we grow old.

Because, in reality, we never arrive.

Until you breathe your last breath, you are changing and evolving.

What is your ambition?

Don't think it has to be a fanatastic agenda, or a lengthy project, or anything profound.

Life is profound enugh without us over-thinking it.

Walk a little farther today.

Carry your groceries home.

Learn something new.

Get your hands dirty.

Shakespeare once said, "The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream."

Use everything you have today.

Whatever that looks like.

My ambition today is to see with new eyes. To take in new words. To recycle what I see and hear and feel and turn it into art.