A Blank Slate of New Possibilities

When it’s time for me to write a newsletter, I often refer to my previous writings for ideas. This month, however, when I looked in my past files, I felt constricted. I didn’t want to go back to the past. Instead, I wanted something fresh. I began to think that most of our ideas and actions aren’t new. They are often just rehashed experiences when most of us long for new possibilities.

I had a dream in which a spiritual teacher and prolific writer appeared. He carried an empty briefcase through the airport, and I found this to be astonishing. When I asked him why, he said it was because we never need to refer back to our experiences or files for information. In other words, we don’t have to carry this weight around since it just holds us down. He said the greatest potential is in the now if we just open ourselves up to it.

After formulating the idea for this article, a friend ran into someone who had taken a year off from work. This break allowed her to live in the moment. Suddenly she found herself singing. Songs began to come to her fully formed. She took voice lessons and then recorded songs. She is now in the process of selling advertising jingles. Had she insisted that what was next for her would come from her past, none of these new successes would have happened. Had she not given herself time and space, her creative impulse may never have sprung up.

If we want something new in our lives, we need to open ourselves up to possibilities–fly out of the cage of conditioning and experiences. We don’t have to be a continuation of our past; we don’t have to define what is next by looking at what has come before, by go through our old files. We can make a quantum leap into something new, carrying our own empty briefcases.

Travel light, give yourself some time and space. You just never know what brilliant impulse might spring up.

Lisa