Kicked Yourself Lately?

If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month.

– Theodore Roosevelt

I laughed this morning when I read this, and so related. Most of my difficulties lie in me, my perceptions of what I “think” is going on. I create fantasies and stories that resemble reality but fall short every time.

I traveled out of state last weekend – visited friends, loved, laughed – then jumped on an airplane to come home. As I sat in the airport, because I had a three-hour layover, I watched people.

People are multifarious. Fancy clothes and rags. Large bodies and trimmed ones. Spiked hair and dreadlocks. Different colored skin and ranging heights. Slumped backs and straight spines.

Each person was different. Each person was the same.

We all carry our story with us, where we’ve come from, our aspirations and ideas, our losses and baggage, our loves and broken hearts, our ambitions and failures. We are a conglomerate of stuff, real and imagined.

I’m sure we’d all have bruises on our behinds if we were honest about who was responsible for the majority of setbacks in our lives. Of course, there are some situations and events that aren’t of our making, but we always have a choice on how we deal with those situations and events.

If my motivation is only to get what I want, I will inevitably bump up against myself and others. If my motivation is to do what’s right, then I will most likely feel free.

If I don’t know what “right” is, I can always ask someone, though who I ask will determine whether I hear what I want or what I need.

The freedom I gain is immeasurable. Freedom from me. Freedom from my delusions and faulty thinking. Freedom from having to kick myself in the bum, once again.

Image Source: 2thin2swim/flickr