"Your imagination is your preview of life's coming attractions." -- Albert Einstein
I facilitate a women's group, and our topic for this month is "manifesting," which is something we do everyday of our lives.
We wake up, get out of bed, move into our day, and flow into it as it unfolds. But does it move us along, or do we create our days as we wish? Our lives are created by us, which means that we are writing our story, and acting in our movie. We are the star, the author, the director and the producer of our great life epic, and how our movie will play out is completely up to us. Yes, there are things that occur in our "life movie" that seem out of our control -- a storm happens, someone dear to our heart dies, a child leaves the nest, but the main direction our life is taking is decided by us, meaning we are the ones that determine where it is we want to go, and if there's somewhere we are intent to get to, we are the ones to get us there. We are in the driver's seat, and just like you wouldn't wait around for someone else to take you where you want to go, you make that happen by getting into your car and driving there. If we had to depend on someone else to take us to our destinations, we wouldn't be happy with that, and who knows if we'd even get to where we want to go, since that would be in someone else's control, not ours.
Each day, we have the opportunity to create what we want, and if we perceive that there is something stopping us from doing that, we relinquish our ability to manifest what we desire. The obstacles that seem to be in our way might feel very real for us when things happen that can throw us off guard or even broadside us. Yes, you can lose a job, a lover or spouse can break your heart, your health gets shaken, but what you choose to do with whatever happens to you, good or bad, is still completely up to you. If something occurs that feels like it's out of your control, and throws you off your center or makes you feel vulnerable or scared, what you need to do after you've mourned or healed from your pain or heartbreak is to get back up, and see yourself as the star of your life movie that you are.
Think of Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond in the movie Sunset Boulevard. Her life was falling apart, and yet somehow she managed to be completely on when she said, "I'm ready for my close up, Mr. DeMille."
Clearly that's not going to be your movie, but hopefully you get the idea, that your life movie can play itself out the way you want it to. Norma Desmond was a "victim" in her movie, unfortunately, and like William Holden says in the narration as she walks down her grand "princess palace" staircase for her close-up, "Life, which can be strangely merciful, had taken pity on Norma Desmond. The dream she had clung to so desperately had enfolded her." Yes, her dream had "enfolded" her as opposed to she unfolding her dream. If we look at that as a metaphor that we are the ones that make our dreams happen, and don't wait for them to happen "to us," we can see that it is up to us to create the life we want and believe is possible.
It's your life movie, no one else's. Make it what you want it to be. Dream big. Blockbuster? Lines around the block? Sold out? "Why reach for the stars when you can have the moon."
For more by Ora Nadrich, click here.
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