Day 21: Limit-less

 Life can be full of twists, turns, and brick walls. It can be filled with hardship, unfulfilled visions and limitations.

So often we allow our limitations due to illness, finances, circumstances, or education to define us.  We associate these limits with loss and sorrow in so many ways, and we allow it to take away our joy.

We see our blocked paths and simply turn away.  Sometimes we find a bramble filled place and try to fight our way through only to end up hurt.  Other times we simply give up,  often in anger and frustration or sorrow. We close the doors to dreams, opportunities, and our own imaginations more times than we can count.   We limit ourselves far more than our real limitations do.

-If we want to sculpt, but can't afford clay or stone... we don't sculpt.  We wish and dream and feel that ache inside everyday that we aren't creating.
-If we want to be a parent, but you are infertile...we give up and mourn the loss of our imagined children.
-If we want to write, but can't spell...we don't dare.  And we have stories running through our heads at all times, things we want to share with the world, but never do.
-If we want to ride bikes with our kids, but our knees are weak and can't do it...so we stay inside lamenting it.  Cursing our bodies who won't cooperate.
-If we want to be the mom who homeschools, or volunteers in the classroom, and writes, and crafts and runs a marathon or work out, but have anxiety and fibromyalgia and just can't do it all....and we hate ourselves and curse our life for the way it has betrayed us. We feel robbed and angry.

So often what happens is that we stop trying or we attack our life as if it has betrayed us in the worst ways.  We fill our minds and hearts with anger and frustration and loathing for our everyday.  Each action seems a step further from where we want to be.  Someone may give us ideas, and good ones at that, but damn it we don't WANT to have to do that!  It may involve accepting that we can't have life the way we envisioned it. And that can go one of two ways:

-you become entrapped in the spiral or anger and hatred and frustrations as you keep trying to make life work the way you want it to.

-you accept the limitations and build your life around them.

Here's the truth: if you choose the second option, you have to choose joy too.  Which means....you have to let go of the anger at having limits.

AND

You have to stop thinking that accepting some limits automatically makes your life shallow and unfulfilling. 

No, life won't be the way you imagined it.  

And that's ok.

No, you won't be able to accomplish all you dreamed of.

And that's ok.

No, there will not be justice for these limitations of life. 

And that's ok.

 

YOU are ok.

 

Just as you are.  As limited as you are in this moment...you are ok.  

And no, you are not broken.

And here's the most important thing... you are still limitless.

Wait, what?

Let me explain. Or rather, rephrase from earlier:

-If we want to sculpt, but can't afford clay or stone... so we get styrofoam from packaging or for $3 at the store and we create.  
-If we want to be a parent, but you are infertile...we look into infertility treatments, adoption, foster care, or we ask a friend about surrogacy. We find a way for that parental calling to be fulfilled.
-If we want to write, but can't spell...so we sit at the library with a dictionary or autocheck on the computer.  Or we give it to a friend to edit. Or we go online to youtube and find a free video to help us learn to read.
-If we want to ride bikes with our kids, but our knees are weak and can't do it...so along with slowly working out to build strength (if we can) we take walks with them instead.  Talking and finding leaves and cool rocks.
-If we want to be the mom who homeschools, or volunteers in the classroom, and writes, and crafts and runs a marathon or work out, but have anxiety and fibromyalgia and just can't do it all....we give ourselves and our bodies grace and focus on ONE thing at a time until it is easy habit and then slowly introduce more as our bodies allow.  And we choose joy in each action, rather than condemnation of our limitations.

We have every ability to fulfill almost all of our dreams (or at least what is at the core of them), just in different ways. You know the phrase "more ways than one to skin a cat?" Well, firstly, that quote is gross.  Like whoever came up with that...I really hope they didn't actually have cats.  Ever.  But secondly, it is a perfect example of truth.

There are more ways than one to live your life.  

To be fulfilled.  

To create, dream, live, and THRIVE.

It's all in how we approach it.  Someone unable to walk may find they are an amazing writer.  Something they would never have known had they always been physically capable.  Someone who fatigues easily may never have realized how much they love knitting if they never had to sit down and find a way to fill that time without exhaustion.  Someone unable to advance at their job and drowning in debt may never have realized that they in fact wanted to go back to school to pursue something that is utterly life fulfilling and pays the bills.  Our challenges help us grow.  They help us find our deepest callings.  Limitations are a normal part of life, and we all have them in some way.  Some are fiercer than others, but YOU are NOT a victim.  You are going to take your life as it is and embrace it and make it beautiful.

Our lives are not cursed. 

They are not broken.

They are ours. Created just for us. 

And God is working. Hard.

He is working for our good. 

Always.

All we have to do is be willing to open our eyes and embrace the life we have.

And be ready to embrace the way our lives are rather than what we thought they should have been. 

 Your life may have limits but YOU are limitless.